Audentes Fortuna Iuvat
by tenrousei-kuroi
Summary: Sirius embarks on his first year at school, and leaves Regulus behind at Grimmauld Place...but Regulus has never been very good at staying put, and the disturbing instances occurring up at that boarding school necessitate a little rule-breaking and adventure. Everywhere from Catalan to the werewolves' underworld is fair game.
1. 0 Of Introductions and such

**_Yes I am aware that Regulus and Sirius were actually around three years apart. Here there is only one school year's difference between them because I didn't want to wait that long before sending Regulus up to the school as well. _**

* * *

><p>Red leaves, like the floating beads of color in a lava lamp, were slowly spinning, falling, and waving to the ground outside the window. The young boy watched them sway and drop, like deep, burgundy blood spilling from an open wound. A few strays struck the panes of glass. He didn't flinch. The season was changing, life was changing, there was death in the air (life changes by dying) apparent in the dry, cracking leaves that, devoid of their rich, green veins in their old age, turned red, shriveled, and let the wind take them away.<p>

[_September 1_

_[Regs, I promised, didn't I? That I'd write right away and say 'hi?']_

Regulus found death a curious thing. He angled his head, letting soft, black hair shift on his scalp, cover part of his face, and he watched. He watched the tree shed its dead leaves and wondered if it was all the better having lost them.

The air in the library was still, the room quiet. Regulus didn't dare speak because it would be like breaking it, shattering what existed in the room, and broken things had a way of getting to him. Almost silently, he padded carefully away from the window, and walked down the nearest row of books, brushing his fingers across the spines lightly as he went, making imaginary music on the dusty leather.

The days were always quiet now, without Sirius. Slow, and silent. Grimmauld Place was haunted, almost dead at times with its liveliest member gone away to boarding school. Regulus tried to calm himself with thoughts of the _next_ September, when he would be gone, watching different leaves die and fall: Hogwarts leaves. But Regulus knew that he could never truly be gone of this house. It had, over the years, reached out for him, slowly grabbing him, and as he grew, he grew _around _its grasp, connected, entwined. Although the tendrils stretched, and they _would_ stretch when he left for his First Year, they would always still be there, waiting to pull him back, an ever present _tug_ from behind.

[_Kind of hectic, really nervous, of course, but don't go spreading THAT around!]_

He thought of his brother, and wondered if Sirius felt their house_theirfamily_'s grip, iron tight, on his shoulder as well. Like small leaves on a tangled tree.

_Sirius…_

_Brother…_

Regulus worried.

Sirius's letter had arrived yesterday, as promised, a short note of excitement and worry, and love. It was almost comforting, in a way, to see that Sirius's handwriting remained unchanged, that _he_ was still the same. The house selection, well, that had been a surprise, but Regulus had never put much store in labels anyway, at least not in those made by others. He would create his own opinions of people, thank you. _What good is a hat's word as to what you really are?_ He thought.

Yes, the letter had come very promptly, and Regulus couldn't help but feel that was his doing. He had, in a fit of the most uncharacteristic kind, pleaded with Sirius to not cut him off, to not leave him, all alone, in a confining house with no one to talk to. Letters, he demanded them, _right away, immediately, while you're still on the TRAIN if you must._ Anything to keep him busy, and Sirius had obliged and sent his owl back the very night of September first, and promised to send more regularly.

But Regulus was already embarrassed of his minor lapse of face. And he knew Sirius's promise was an empty one. He would not write again, not unless he needed something. Perhaps it wouldn't be on purpose, he would just be so busy and excited_._ But that was beside the point. Regulus expected no more messages from his brother. And he didn't reply to the first.

"Master Regulus," said a crisp voice from the library door. The voice killed the silence; it sliced Regulus out of his reverie. He peered around the bookshelf, dust floating around his face, lit up in motes by the morning sun streaming in the east facing window. Kreacher was meeting his gaze with a clean stare. "Mistress will be awake soon, and Master already is. They will be calling you for breakfast, soon," he said, rapping short, young fingers on the doorframe.

"Thank you, Kreacher," said Regulus, and the servant left with not a bow, but a nod. "They probably shouldn't know I've been hiding out in here all morning…" he murmured. "I might not be able to do it again."

Regulus walked leisurely back to his room and closed the door quietly, and then he waited. When his mother's footsteps sounded past his ears, he opened his door and stepped out behind her, following. She did not greet him.

* * *

><p>The entryway to the wine cellar loomed dark and foreboding. Nothing could have been more enticing at the moment.<p>

"Kreacher!" Regulus called, and within the minute, the servant was beside him. "It's nine in the morning, Kreacher; you should really be more alert than this. Now, Mother is out and Father is in his study." Regulus grinned crookedly, his arms folded.

"Yes, Regulus?" Kreacher questioned, dropping the title because he felt there was no need for it. His eyes were wary.

[_I miss you terribly, of course. I really do. But I'll see you at Christmas. I'll be coming home for Christmas.]_

"So…let's go down," and with that, Regulus pushed open the door roughly with both hands, and began to step down into the impeding darkness. Kreacher stayed still at first, and then grimaced when he heard Regulus stumbling about in the pitch black. Sighing, he snapped his fingers and the cellar flooded with amber light.

"Huh," Regulus exclaimed from his position of the dusty floor. He nodded, eyeing the flickering lamps and candles. "Smart idea."

Kreacher decided to get the formalities over with as soon as possible. So, while Regulus dusted himself off and began rummaging through the wooden cases, examining years and flavors, Kreacher cleared his throat and began in a monotone, "No, really, Master Regulus, you are too small. You are ten years old, this is a bad idea and if you are caught by Master or Mistress, then the consequences will be most dire. Not to mention that you could potentially cause yourself a great deal of harm, oh yes. I think—"

"Calm down, Kreacher," Regulus laughed, swinging a bottle filled with deep, purple liquid idly in one hand, and flourishing a suddenly procured wand in the other. "Mother and Father," he continued, putting an alarming emphasis the words, "Are still freaking over Sirius's little color scheme trick. A Lion!" Regulus scoffed. "To them it's the worst betrayal yet! Does it matter what I do? I would be surprised, _hell_, I would be _astonished_ if either one of them even remembers they _have_ a son called Regulus!"

"Regulus!" Kreacher's eyes looked suddenly two times too large. "Is that _Master's old wand?"_ He pointed to the wand Regulus now twirled in his left hand. "Not _only_ may you _not_ have that, but there is a reason Master got a new one! It is broken, Regulus, you shouldn't mess with it, you'll hurt yourself!_ Why_ he hasn't gotten rid of it—"

But Regulus was not one for listening to doubting Thomases, and so he jabbed the wand at the cork in the bottle, which promptly flew out of its prison with a satisfying _POP_ and landed on the floor in the cellar. Regulus smirked and made a gesture with his shoulders as if to say, 'see?' "You worry too much, Kreacher," he laughed.

"Regulus you are lucky nothing went wrong. Attempting magic without the supervision of an adult is a risky thing to do. Not to mention illegal. You are only ten—"

"—and a half seconds away, roughly, from being really, really happy, you care to join me?" Regulus held out the open bottle briefly, and when Kreacher blanched, he shrugged and then took a large drink himself. "Now," he said, wiping his mouth. "Let's see if there's anything _else_ worth seeing down here."

"Sirius has worn off on you," Kreacher said with contempt. "You did not used to be so much like him when you were alone. If Master knew..."

"Then why don't you go tell him, hmm?" Regulus was closely examining the wall in the corner, urging the candle floating near his head to hover closer so he'd have more light. "Go ahead, snitch. I dare you."

Kreacher made no move to do anything of the sort.

An hour's searching of the walls and floors, accompanied by many taps with Orion's old wand (something that made Kreacher bite his lip nervously with little teeth every time Regulus did it), failed to reveal anything secret about the room at hand. No secret doors, no tunnels, no nothing.

"Well this room is officially boring," griped Regulus.

"What exactly are you looking for, anyway?"

Regulus threw the half empty bottle to the floor where he'd discarded the others. It smashed and spilled the last of its liquid all over the already soaked ground to settle among the half dozen discarded corks that lay next to the mound of broken glass.

"Something Narcissa said over the summer," Regulus answered sourly.

Kreacher folded his arms. Regulus was quite affected by the wine, he could tell, (even if he had had no more than a few drinks from most of the bottles he had thrown to the ground) and it made him a little cross with the boy.

"Why would Narcissa be talking to you?" He asked coldly.

"She wasn't talking to _me!"_ Regulus exclaimed, sitting down on a stool, another poisonous, albeit unopened, bottle in his hands. He stared deep into it, holding it to his face as he talked. "She was complaining to Andromeda, of course! Angry, still, that they don't have the house, you know?"

Kreacher nodded, slowly. Regulus's words were very thick and slurred, but it was obvious what he was referring to. Narcissa had, more than either of her sisters, always been fairly peeved that Orion had inherited Grimmauld place and not her parents. Although why she'd have wanted to stay there was beyond Kreacher's imagination as from what he overheard during soirees and dinner parties, her home at the Manor was far from unimpressive. He supposed she had some reason for wanting to be in or close to London.

"Andromeda wasn't very impressed, of course, but Narcissa kept going on and on about how great this place is. Then she let slip that she figures there's a secret room hidden here somewhere. Full of cool things like dark artifacts or old torture devices maybe." Regulus looked down at the ground. "It was always more fun searching for it while Sirius was here, but," he sighed. "Not a total waste, look! Huckleberry!" And with that he uncorked the bottle, the cork bouncing twice off the wall in his drunken exuberance, and took a drink of the dark wine. Kreacher groaned.

"Master Regulus, are we done down here yet? Here, we should clean this up before Master notices, and we need to get you somewhere where you can lie down."

"How many times do I have to tell you, Kreacher? They're not going to notice, and if they do, they won't care! It's all in perspective now, you see? They probably won't even acknowledge me for another week or so." For a moment, Regulus looked very thoughtful. Then it seemed as if he'd reached a conclusion. "I don't think I'd like that," he said. And Kreacher groaned.

"I could blame this whole mess on you, you know," Regulus said. "If I needed to. It'd be easy, you know?" He smiled. "Father!" He pretended to yell. "Kreacher thinks you've been drinking too much, look, he's gone and destroyed half your beloved wine cellar. Yes, Father, I know, some of those were vintage!" Regulus laughed cruelly. His words were almost unrecognizable by now.

"You can't even speak properly, Regulus."

Regulus lifted an eyebrow. "Hmm," he said. "Maybe you're right, maybe we should clean up this place; Father won't really miss six or seven wayward bottles. And I should sleep for a while, maybe, right? Get well, we'll pretend this never happened, and tomorrow I'll search in a non-alcoholic room. Maybe I'll just hang around here for a year, slinking around in shadows, avoiding everyone and trying not to draw attention to myself and maybe I'll do everything I can not to upset Mother and Father further, for they are already oh so hung up over Sirius. But the world isn't about him you know!"

"Uh-oh," Kreacher muttered to himself. And he got ready to Apparate to some far off corner of the house to hide. He could see where this was going.

"Let's see then," Regulus slurred. "Instead of all that, yes, instead, how about we test some waters here. I'll _make_ them pay attention to me and let's see how out of whack Father's displacement ego defense mechanisms _really _are."

Kreacher grimaced and raised his hand, ready to snap his fingers. Regulus cleared his throat and swung his arm down, breaking the seventh bottle on the ground. More wine soaked the wood, and when Regulus spoke, his voice was very clear, unshaking, and unslurred.

"Father!" He called with such a voice that it must carry upstairs. "Get _down_ here. Your son is drinking all your _sparkling_ wine!"

With a _CLICK_, Kreacher was gone, Regulus sat back down, and all the lights in the cellar blew out as one.

* * *

><p>"Really, <em>how did this happen?"<em>

Regulus helped himself to another glass of cider and jerked his head so his bangs fell into his eyes. He adopted an annoyed expression and tugged uncomfortably on the collar of his fancy robes. His uncle's question hung, unanswered, in the air.

Then the question was repeated at him.

"I told you," said Regulus smoothly, leaning down from his seat to pat Kreacher on the head as the elf passed, a tray of hors d'oeuvres almost sent flying from his grasp. "I closed my bedroom door a little too quickly in a fit of angst and my hand got caught. Bruised knuckles, you know." He smiled as Kreacher, slightly cross-eyed, stumbled to the end of the table and set the treats down, blinking rapidly.

"Yes, but," came the startled reply. "Your _face!"_

"Hmm?" said Regulus, looking up briefly from the finger sandwich he was currently gnawing on. "Oh, yes," he said, swallowing and nodding. "Tragic, you know, Kreacher didn't mean to, but sometimes he is a little careless making tea. Dumped nearly half the kettle all over my arm. Suppose it was partly my fault for letting my arm wander too close in the first place. Terribly painful scalding, I wouldn't recommend it."

Kreacher glared from the corner where he stood, massaging his head.

"_Regulus!_ I mean your _face!_"

Regulus now seemed moderately interested in his interrogator for the first time. "Why, Uncle Alphard, you really _do_ know my name. Well, I'd say you're a far step ahead of the majority of our relatives. And way to go on remembering that r-e-g-u-l-u-s does not actually make the 'Sirius' sound." Regulus nodded and went back to his snacking.

"Enough, now, you're completely black and blue! Can you even see out of that eye?"

Regulus chuckled and decided to get up before his parents came back into the dining room and this questioning was overheard. "Well, I know Father will be coming back soon from upstairs and you and he will have a lot of business to talk about, Uncle," said Regulus smoothly. "I'll be outside, if you need me, only don't tell anyone that. If the topic comes up, though it won't, tell them I'm in Sirius's room, rummaging through his things."

And then Regulus was gone, out an unwarded window on the top floor, surely, and his uncle was left alone briefly in the dining room, sitting at the scrubbed, wooden table with no one but the house elf for company until either Orion or Walburga returned.

He rubbed his face tiredly.

"Really, now, elf, what _was_ all that about?"

Kreacher opened his mouth, then stopped himself and shook his head. He had talked so very little to anyone other than Regulus lately that it was hard sometimes to keep himself in check.

"Kreacher knows not, sir," he said in a sly voice. "Things is a bit strange here, sir, with Master Sirius, being gone. Kreacher thinks Master Regulus may be missing him something awful, sir." He added in an inaudible whisper, "_Not_ that he'd ever admit to it."

Alphard nodded vigorously. "Sirius being gone does dim down the place. He's a good kid, that one. But the other…I worry sometimes." He shook himself briefly, and then continued. "Orion and I have much to work on for the next stretch of time. I'll be here often, maybe I'll be lucky enough to catch Sirius here sometime on vacation. I miss seeing him when I visit. He'll be back here for Christmas, I presume?"

Kreacher's face turned sour.

[_But I'll see you at Christmas. I'll be coming home for Christmas.]_

"Master Regulus says surely not, sir."

* * *

><p>"Are you done shattering rules for a while now, Regulus?" Kreacher questioned. "You know you're not supposed to go out."<p>

"Mm?" Regulus cocked an eyebrow and looked sulkily at the house elf from his position on Sirius's bed. "Yeah, I'm done," he said, laying down on his back and making to take something out from inside his pocket. He was still winding down from his adrenaline rush of being outside. His clothes were still twisted and windswept, and his hair still smelled like cold fall air.

"And you should have let me fix at least your face before your uncle came. Now he's all worked up—!"

"—over Sirius being gone, nothing else," scoffed Regulus. "And my face is fine, thank you."

Kreacher glared. Regulus finally succeeded in pulling something vaguely rectangular out of his pocket and then held it at arm's length away from his face.

_Click!_

"Regulus!" Kreacher whispered furiously. "_Master Orion's camera!"_

Regulus shrugged and took another snapshot of his face against the blue background of Sirius's comforter. "Maybe I want Sirius to see my perfectly okay face."

"Like he'd even care, now put that back Regulus or I will tell Master!"

"No you won't," said Regulus, sitting up and smiling. "After all you're whispering, aren't you? For the express purpose, I assume, of _not_ attracting Father's attention. Admit it." He smirked.

Kreacher stared at the ground, trying to think of something to say. Of course he would never deliberately get Regulus in trouble, or Sirius, for that matter, but especially not Regulus.

"You should get out of Sirius's room," he muttered finally.

"Give me one good reason."

Kreacher looked up and saw Regulus reclining back onto Sirius's bed, stretching his arms. He sighed but said nothing. Regulus smiled triumphantly, but it faded quickly.

"He _might_ care," he muttered. Kreacher sighed in response.

"Come on, then," Regulus said a minute later. He got up, camera in hand. "Let's go take some interesting pictures. We can develop them tonight."

Kreacher looked at him skeptically. _"You're_ going to brew up the potion?"

Regulus nodded innocently.

"And you're just going to _borrow_ the ingredients from Master's and Mistress's stores?"

"Mmhmm."

"And you're going to just wandlessly perform the spell that makes to development potion last because of _course_ you put Master's wand back where it belongs…right?"

"You're silly, Kreacher," said Regulus, grinning.

"Better than being suicidal," murmured the elf, and Regulus smirked like a jackal.

* * *

><p>"You should be a photographer, Regulus," Kreacher said with much less sarcasm than was usual. "Some of these are fairly good."<p>

"Mmhmm," murmured Regulus, tacking more moving photographs on his bedroom walls and the inside of his door. Kreacher was sitting on his bed, ears perked up and sifting through a stack of the photographs. For a while there was nothing but the sounds of shuffling photo paper and the swishing of Regulus's slacks as he moved from one end of the room to the other, putting up pictures. Then Kreacher spoke:

"Where did you take this one?"

Regulus glanced at the photo. "Outside," he said. "In the muggle street."

"Hmm…and this one?" Kreacher held the next one out at arm's length and shook it slightly to recapture Regulus's attention.

"Also outside. The backyard, though, beneath that tree."

Kreacher looked at the picture again. A little fox was curled up in the grass, asleep, tail twitching over its nose and long whiskers shivering in the slight wind. The grass was so long it nearly covered the fox's ears. The light was coming in at a very intriguing angle. It made the edges of the fox and the tips of the grass look golden.

"It's a fox?" Kreacher asked.

"Yes, it hangs around here quite often, rummaging for food, I suppose. It looks young, and I suppose its family has abandoned it."

Kreacher took another look at the sleeping animal. Now that he thought about it, it did look awfully skinny and sick. "You're right. It's small. It will most likely die without its parents or litter mates to show it how to survive."

"If you say so, Kreacher," said Regulus in a quiet voice.

Kreacher fixed Regulus with an exasperated look. _"Really?"_ he demanded, but Regulus was busy prying apart two pictures which had become stuck together, and pretended to concentrate hard on not disfiguring either one.

"Regulus!"

"Hmm?" said Regulus, shifting closer to the wall. He seemed to be attempting to hide his face from the elf.

Kreacher jumped down from the bed, glaring hard at Regulus's back. "You've been feeding it, haven't you?" he exclaimed.

Regulus's shoulders twitched. "And so what if I have?" he said indignantly. "What's that to anyone?"

Kreacher flung back his head and stared at the ceiling. "You're going to become attached!" he cried desperately.

Regulus was silent for a few minutes. He finished positioning every photograph except the one of the fox, which he, with a glare in Kreacher's direction, placed neatly in the top drawer of his dresser. "Don't talk nonsense," he said airily.

"No, Regulus, listen…I don't…oh, _why can't you have a normal pet?"_

Regulus sat down on the floor of his room with his back leaning against his bed. Reaching behind him he took an old book out from under his pillow. In an instant, Kreacher knew it was from Orion's private shelf in his study, but being so worked up over the fox he didn't realize to scold the child about it. Regulus opened the book in his lap and bent his head over it intently. He began poring over its pages, his soft black hair hanging in his face and hiding his expressions.

"Normal pets are boring," he said slowly and without looking up just as Kreacher had opened his mouth again, presumably to reiterate his previous statement.

"Yes, but they're…well, _normal_ and acceptable. And you can have them for a long time. You'll lose your fox, Regulus."

"Will I now?" Regulus asked, turning the page. He still hadn't looked up. "Well I suppose then that's that. And if I do, then isn't it _my fault,_ anyway_?_"

But Kreacher was not very pacified. "Regulus," he said softly. "Soon, very soon, you will be going to school, and with no one to feed it the baby fox will leave, and you'll…"

"I'll what?" he asked sharply.

Kreacher took a breath. "You'll be alone."

Finally, Regulus looked up.

"You don't want me to have a friend."

Kreacher blinked and thought Regulus was behaving a little out of character, but at the same time he wasn't exactly surprised. "Someone like you shouldn't have friends you'll lose," he said simply. "I just don't think you're stable enough for it." _Seeing Sirius when he gets back and realizing you've lost him is going to be bad enough._

Regulus stared hard at his servant, like he could tell what he was thinking. He narrowed his grey eyes not angrily, but almost in warning.

Kreacher tried another approach. "And would it be fair to your little friend?" he asked. "To have someone to play with, someone to look after him, someone to love…and then have that person just disappear for a whole year? And even if he was still here when that year was up…"Kreacher continued slyly. "Suppose you don't want anything to do with him anymore? Is that fair to him?"

Regulus turned the page in his book without looking, and did it so fast he tore it. Not seeming to care, he only said, "Well you have so little faith in me, Kreacher. This is different. I have no intentions of leaving him all alone. I will bring him with me."

"To…to _school?"_ Kreacher sputtered. "He's not exactly a cat or an owl_,_ Regulus!"

"Fixable," said Regulus, shrugging.

* * *

><p>"Oh, elf, I'm glad I caught you. Get your master will you? I've been meaning to have a word with him."<p>

Kreacher stared at Alphard with a careless expression, mouth frowning and eyes raking the man's greying goatee.

"Master Orion is at the ministry now with Mistress but they will be back in an hour or so."

"Well it's a good thing I let myself in then, isn't it," mumbled Alphard, and he took his usual place at the kitchen table. Kreacher busied himself preparing some snacks and coffee and the older man didn't stop him. He swung his feet up on the chair across the table from him, feeling an odd thrill from acting so juvenile.

"Where's Sirius's brother?" asked Alphard casually because he found 'silent' too difficult.

Kreacher drew a deep breath. He was angry at Regulus still, very angry, but that didn't change anything. "Master Regulus is out with Master and Mistress," he lied.

Alphard's eyes narrowed. "That the truth?" he asked.

"Yes," Kreacher set a mug of black coffee in front of him.

Alphard ignored the drink and leaned forward intently, eyes narrowing. "Sit down…Kreacher," he said, for once using the elf's name. Kreacher obliged and took the seat across from the man. "Now I know for a fact that's a lie," said Alphard with a mixture of amusement and suspicion. "_Because_, now try to keep up with me here, _my sister and her husband never take the brat anywhere._ Now how is it you lied to me?"

"I…I don't know," Kreacher said softly. He shook his head and backed away until his back hit the wall. "Because Regulus always…? I don't _know…_" he said again, barely whispering. "_I don't know._"

_[I'd tell you not to be too sad, Regs, but then again you don't really have emotions like normal people, do you? You've always been so different. Like I said I'll see you in a few months, and for god's sake remember that I love you._

_[And don't bother writing and asking me all about the people here and the magic. I can't have you arriving here next year more prepared than me, and besides I can't tell you anything even if I wanted to because I don't know. I really, really, just don't know.]_

Outside the house a bloodred fall leaf detached itself from its fading green brethren and fell through the air with jerky, rebellious movements. It slipped and slid through the cluster of branches it met during its descent. It aimed for the ground. It skimmed across the tops of several long blades of grass before settling, most unexpectedly, on the muzzle of a very small, very alone, dying grey fox.

Alone in the library, Regulus let his book clatter to the floor, and then quickly followed it.

_/signed tenkuroi_


	2. 0 As the Playing Field is Laid Out

_**No Regulus Black = *sadface***_

* * *

><p>"You know what," said the sandy-haired boy conversationally. "I've always kind of wished I had a brother, you know?"<p>

His statement was met with several smirks, laughs, and nods. He looked around the commons at his peers and a voice from his right spoke up.

He turned to see a girl curled up in an arm chair, hiding her face behind a graphic novel. "You can have my sister, Remus," she said with a sarcastic sweetness.

"I appreciate the offer," Lupin nodded. "But I'd hate to deprive you of her wonderful company."

"You say that without knowing her. She's a bitch," the girl said casually, and she lowered the novel to stare at Lupin with green eyes. He then immediately recognized her from the sorting earlier that evening and felt bad that he didn't remember her name. "Although that's probably too harsh an assessment on my part, isn't it? She's just jealous. It's understandable, really. I mean, I get magic and she gets to sit at home all year with mom and dad who're probably still all gay about me coming here."

"Is your sister not a wizard?" asked a small boy with bright eyes and a very angular face.

"Obviously not, Peter," snapped a snarky boy from beside the fireplace. He had become intrigued by the current conversation and while the rest of the commons had fallen back to ignoring the group of First Year students huddled in the corner, he inched closer to them.

Peter rolled his eyes but didn't speak again. Meanwhile, the girl was looking pensively downward. "I guess I feel kind of bad, actually. Feel like a jerk for just ditching her back at home."

The snarky boy shrugged. "Don't feel bad, Lily," he said.

"Why not?" Lily demanded.

"I dunno'," the boy shrugged again. "Just don't think about it. When I come up with some real good advice later I'll let you know. I'm not too wise on the sibling front myself, actually."

"Only child, James?" Lupin guessed.

"Yep."

"Peter?" Lily asked the small boy. She seemed to be trying to locate someone who might be in a similar situation as herself, preferably a First Year to whom she wouldn't be afraid of talking.

"No, it's just me and my mom," he said.

"Yikes, even worse."

Lily scanned the room for more eleven year-olds but most seemed to have gone to bed in anticipation of their first day of classes. Finally her eyes locked onto a skinny boy with longish black hair. He sort of looked like a punk, but he was all alone, sitting in the very corner against the wall of the room, in apparent avoidance of all the older kids who occupied the center.

What. An. Emo.

"What about you, Starboy?"

The kid looked at her briefly, like he'd only just noticed her and he hadn't been sitting three feet away from her and the others all night.

He shook his head.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I can't help you."

James stared at him, unimpressed, like the boy was being difficult on purpose and Lily said with a sarcastic laugh, "Great, everyone but me's gonna' turn out to be a selfish little brat. I'm having _so_ much fun here."

So one by one the room emptied to the dorms, and when the clock struck two, the five new students stood up as one and left for their beds.

* * *

><p>The next day there came a letter that landed in front of Lupin at the breakfast table by mistake. From his position several seats away, James saw Lupin hand the letter over to Lily with a shrug of his shoulders. "Uh, not mine," he said.<p>

Lily looked at the address. "I think it's his," she said, indicating the black-haired boy from the night before, who sat staring at his food as if it were a suspect in some great crime. "Hey, single child!" she called. "_Starkid! _Over here!"

He looked up at her with the most lost expression on his face.

"Letter for you," she said sweetly, and she tossed it down the table where it landed on top of his drinking glass. He took one look at the front of the envelope, seemed to recognize the handwriting, and then immediately proceeded to withdraw his wand from his robes, set the letter flat on the table next to his plate and, holding his wand like a dagger, stab it quite violently. The envelope briefly ignited and seconds later there was nothing but ash that he swept away nonchalantly with the back of his hand.

Lily and Peter exchanged looks. Lupin looked like he was going to hurl, and James scooted a few inches further away from the faint trail of smoke that trailed into the air.

"Uh, you okay kid?" asked a student who was walking over to the Gryffindor table. He stopped next to Lily and she immediately slid further from Lupin to let him sit down in between them.

The new kid received a death glare as a response and flinched a little when the dark-haired boy got up, threw on his backpack and marched out of the hall.

"Well," said Lily. "That was, uh, well I'm glad you got my note, Severus, I've been meaning to talk to you since the sorting."

"Are you supposed to be here?" asked James.

Snape smiled and nodded to Lily, ignoring James completely. "Same here," he said. "I was hoping we would still be friends and all, Lily, even with this whole color swapping thing." He indicated his green and silver tie and the green snake badge on the left side of his robes.

"Screw colors," said Lily, offering him a piece of French toast. "Something like eight to ten percent of the population's colorblind anyway so…" she shrugged.

"You know, I'm kind of worried about that kid," said Lupin, leaning past Snape to address Lily. "He seems a little…unstable."

"Oh! My bad, Severus, this is Remus Lupin. And…uh, Remus, Severus. This is…" she looked around briefly, then pointed to James. "The snarky kid, his name is James. Peter, this is Severus. Am I missing anyone? Oh yeah, the pyromaniac with all the future serial killer red flags that just stormed off? That was Sirius."

Snape laughed a little. "He's probably just dealing right now. I'm sure he'll be fine. Though a fair amount of the Slytherins talk pretty badly about him."

"Already? Why?" asked James through a mouthful of pancakes. Lily grimaced, then offered him some syrup to put on them.

"Well he's Sirius Black," Snape answered, reaching for a juice pitcher like he had just explained everything perfectly.

Lupin, Peter, James, and Lily all stared at him. He raised his eyebrows and then swallowed.

"He's like, the purest pureblood here. More so than even the Malfoys or the Lestranges. The fact that he's not in Slytherin is kinda' a big deal. Come on guys, really."

"So he's like…a rebel?" asked Peter, wide eyed.

"Yeah," said Snape, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess. Well…either that or some sort of reject. And he's not unprecedented, I mean it's not like this hasn't happened before. People just seem to forget. I suppose his parents are thrilled right now. Probably have half the pureblood wizarding community…which I'm now realizing isn't actually all that many people…prying into their business trying to see where they went wrong. I overheard that Certified-Teachers'-Snitch Malfoy saying earlier that his dad figures Sirius was adopted. Or part bastard or something."

Lily snorted into her coffee. "They have to be _so_ happy right now."

"Maybe that letter was from his parents?" asked Peter, leaning forward in his seat.

"You suppose it was them reprimanding him for being in Gryffindor?" asked Lupin.

Peter shrank back down, but Snape asked, "What else would prompt him to give it the death sentence?"

"He didn't even read it, though," observed Lily. "Yeah maybe he knew it was from them based on the handwriting or calligraphy or something like that. But don't you think it would've been one of those angry yelling letters you told me about if it was really his parents wanting to humiliate him?"

"True," consented Snape. "Walburga and Orion would have sent him a howler if it was a letter about school."

"Either way, sounds like he's in deep trouble," commented Lupin as he settled back into his breakfast.

"Mhmm," said the Slytherin. "But from what I hear, a Black Gryffindor's gotta' have some guts. He's basically just committed social suicide."

"Wow guys, we're really gossiping here," Lupin observed.

"Oh, you love it," said Lily.

"I like him," said James, staring at the charred patch on the table.

* * *

><p>And so James decided that Sirius needed to be integrated into what he deemed to be Lupin, Lily, Peter, and his immediate group of friends. It wasn't so much that he knew anything about the Black that would make them compatible as friends, but he just looked so <em>cool.<em> From the outside, Sirius Black seemed to be the image towards which James himself strode.

So calm and uncaring, good looking and bound to be admired by younger students (in a year or so when there would _be_ 'younger students'), James figured together he and Sirius would be at the very top of the school.

Lupin wasn't entirely against the idea, either. In his opinion, if they were going to have to share a dorm room with this boy for the next seven years then he might as well be amicable. He, Lily, and Peter jumped on board enthusiastically.

The only problem was getting Sirius to do anything other than mope.

Lily got Sirius to sit by her during their first lesson together, Transfiguration, mostly by process of elimination which forced him into the last open seat. Glaring, he sat down next to her, heaved a sigh, and placed his head in his hands.

Lily raised her eyebrows, then looked around at James, who gave an encouraging smile.

Here goes nothing.

Their teacher took position in front of the blackboard, and the students proceeded to ignore almost every word she spoke, in particular, the First Year Gryffindors.

"Hey, mister blackbird, do you have a problem sitting by me or something?"

A glance in her direction, but little else.

_"Quiet please."_

"Come on, stop your brooding and talk to me. What's your favorite color?"

Sirius gave her an incredulous look, like, _why_ do you care?

"Oh, don't look at me, man, Jamie told me to ask that."

Sirius shook his head and looked away.

_"No talking please, now listen carefully."_

"Blue," he said quietly. "I like blue."

This took Lily off guard. "My money was on red or gold, huh." She looked again at James and Lupin who shrugged. From the table behind them, Peter mouthed, "and not silver or green, either?"

Sirius let his head bang down on the desk, and his long black hair sprawled out over his and Lily's notebooks. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "keep your hair to yourself."

_"Are the two of you even paying attention?"_

Lily's head whipped around to face McGonagall. "Oh, yeah yeah," she muttered, and jabbed her wand the match in the teacher's hand. It shivered and changed into a very sharp needle. "Here, slim shady, you too." Lily lifted Sirius's head up by his hair and then grabbed the hand in which he held his wand. She waved his hand for him and he glared but muttered something. The needle turned back into a match. Lily closed her eyes and smiled cheekily.

The class let out the collective breath they'd all been holding.

"So yeah, back to topic."

Sirius growled into his hands. "What do you want, Evans?" he finally conceded to ask.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to call someone your age by their last name?"

"No it's not, we're in England."

"Oh, right, we are."

Sirius was losing his patience. "Your point!" he whispered angrily.

Lily tore out a piece of her notebook and wrote a time on it. She put it on the desk right under Sirius's face and tapped it once to get his attention. "This time," she said. "Tonight, the five of us are sneaking out to explore."

"And you think that I will accompany you or something?"

"Uh…yeah. Unless you think Jamie looks like he's about ready to undergo mitosis or something then yes, you would be what makes us four, _five."_

"I'm not going."

* * *

><p>The next class was Herbology, and Sirius, in his anger about the previous period, practically ran to get there and took a seat in the very corner of the classroom, covering the chair next to him with his backpack and jacket. He then crossed his arms and continued to sulk as the rest of the class filed in.<p>

What he hadn't accounted for was Lupin's fantastic ability to pick up Sirius's bag and jacket and, after promptly setting them on the floor, take the seat next to him.

Sirius swore under his breath.

"Lucky we're not in the greenhouses yet, or I might not have gotten the chance to sit by you," Lupin smiled as he unpacked his pens and paper.

"Yes," said Sirius bitterly. "Lucky me."

"Wow, Lily wasn't lying, you really are unhappy."

Sirius rubbed his eyes in frustration. "What do you want, Lupin?"

"Quiet Sirius, teacher's talking."

If it wasn't bad enough that Lupin had weaseled his way into the seat next to him, Lily and Peter were right in front, and James not far to the side in the adjacent aisle. Sirius felt like he was deep within enemy lines and surrounded.

It wasn't five minutes before Lily had her head in her arms moaning, "Oh my god plants are so boring," and James, with his head cocked to the side, had inquired of the Slytherin sitting next to him, "This is a class..._why?_"

"Did you learn a lot at home?" asked Lupin. Sirius did a double take.

"What?" he asked, seeming offended.

"I just meant," Lupin said, feeling free to talk now that their professor had set them reading a passage in their books and had himself left to rummage through some supplies in the closet. "That I heard a lot of families like yours hire, like, private tutors for their kids. I was just wondering if all this stuff we've been learning today was old news to you or not."

Sirius didn't feel this question deserved an answer.

"You seem sad," Lupin tried another approach.

"I'm fine."

"No, no, I'm fairly certain that you're sad," he continued, and his face did show some genuine concern. He looked at Sirius sincerely with very sharp brown eyes. "Do you have a baby brother or sister at home? Are you sad because you had to leave them behind?"

Sirius's entire body went rigid.

"James said he saw you send your owl off the train with a letter last afternoon, is that who you were writing to?"

"I don't have any siblings," Sirius snapped.

"Oh," said Lupin, unfazed. "Because if I did, I would miss them a lot, which would be sad, but then at least I'd have someone to miss. Lily is so lucky she has a sister, even if her sister is a muggle. Siblings are special, you know?"

Sirius looked away.

"If I had a little brother or sister," Lupin continued, now scribbling notes from the previous lecture onto some paper. "I would tell them I loved them every day, and watch out for them, and everything…man, I feel like I've been ripped off or something."

"Stop it, you're babbling. And besides, they're overrated, anyway," said Sirius, idly flipping through pages in his textbook, elbow on the desk.

"I though you said you were an only child."

"I said I didn't have any siblings."

"Whatever," said Lupin, who was now searching through his own backpack. "Oh here, I almost forgot." He handed Sirius a piece of paper which he, without thinking, accepted.

"10:35," said Lupin, smiling. "We're meeting Lily in the common room before we head out."

The teacher returned to the classroom at last. Sirius looked closer at the scrap of paper and realized in anguish that it was the same one Lily had shown him the previous hour. Only now there were little chibi drawings surrounding the written time; Lily had clearly had some fun decorating it as she walked from Transfiguration to Herbology.

Sirius swore loudly enough to lose twenty points from Gryffindor.

* * *

><p>That evening just before dinner, Snape took Lily for a walk through the forest. They never wandered far into it, preferring to stay within a hundred feet of the grounds or so, but it was a rebellious act all the same.<p>

"So what'd you want to talk about, Severus?" asked Lily.

"Well…" Snape began, kicking at the leaves at his feet. "I was talking to Peter earlier."

Lily stared at him. "By choice?" she laughed and Snape let his jaw drop.

"Sorry, that was mean. I didn't mean it. Anyway, continue."

"Right," said Snape, and he paused to snap a branch off a tree. Waving it in front of them idly as they continued to walk he murmured, "He mentioned you guys were going exploring tonight."

Lily snatched the stick from Snape and twirled it fast enough to make an angry hissing noise. "He would go around spouting off to everyone, wouldn't he? I should train him to keep his mouth shut."

"It was just me," Snape assured her.

"Right, right…" Lily muttered. Her voice trailed off when she heard a noise from deeper inside the forest. The stick went spiraling out of her hands.

"What?"

"I heard something," Lily bit her lip. "Like someone slipping on the ground. It was probably just a centaur, right?"

"Yeah," said Snape uncertainly. "Totally just a centaur. Or a unicorn. Or something else nice and fluffy."

Lily strained her eyes to try and see. "Is it getting dark already?" she asked.

"No, it's just the trees here blocking the sun," replied Snape. "We still have a little while before dinner."

"Oh, okay," said Lily, and the two eagerly walked away from the place where they'd heard the rustling noise.

"Well anyway," Snape began but he didn't seem able to continue.

"You were talking to Peter," Lily prompted him. "And he blabbed about our escapade."

A small bird took off into flight from a bush in front of them and they both shrieked and grabbed at each other's robes. Breathing harshly they decided to just sit down on the wet leaves.

"Right…" Snape said breathlessly. "He said you four were going exploring and it—"

"Five," Lily corrected him.

"What?"

"There are five of us going, we're taking Sirius Black with us."

"Why are you taking him?"

"Because he's going to become our friend!" Lily insisted.

Snape rolled his eyes. Brushing some dirt off his jeans he said simply, "All he's good for is sulking, and, presumably, writing dark poetry. Why do you want to be his friend?"

Lily shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea. Anyway James is hell bent on it, so you know."

"Yeah he is sort of impulsive, so yeah, I think I get that."

"Good," said Lily, nodding. She and Snape were both positioned with their backs against a very large tree. Lily reached around and pulled off a piece of bark and began playing with it, pulling it apart into little pieces.

"Are you going to eat dinner with us tonight?" she asked.

"Well I thought I'd ask first—"

"You don't have to ask," Lily laughed. "Just come on over."

"No, I mean, I wanted to ask first if I could go with you tonight!"

Lily looked into Snape's black eyes. "You want…to go exploring with us?" she asked incredulously.

"Is that so hard to believe?" asked Snape, blinking.

"Oh, no, I just, I got the impression you guys hadn't taken to each other so well."

Snape shrugged. "I'm willing to give it a try. I haven't really had many friends before. It'd be downright foolish of me to forgo the opportunity when it arises right in front of my nose."

Lily chuckled. "Yeah, your large nose," she said, tapping it with her finger. Snape shook his head away from her reach.

"You're mean tonight," he said, but his tone was still lighthearted. "So what do you say? Can I come with you guys?"

Lily threw the bark she'd pulled off at the tree in front of them. "I don't know what the others'd say," she muttered.

"They'd be fine with it if you were!" Snape insisted.

"True…" Lily wavered.

"Please Lily," Snape begged. "The next time I get the chance to exchange some money, I'll buy you as many comic books as I can afford!"

That sealed the deal.

"Done," Lily said. "You're coming with. Password to the Gryffindor dorm rooms is 'Audentes Fortuna Iuvat,' which is gibberish for something. The entrance is behind a picture of a really large pink woman on the seventh floor just off the west side of the staircase—you know, the side where the tower'd be if you were looking from the outside, do you…do you know how to get there?" All of this was said in one breath, leaving Lily a little winded by the end of it. She breathed rapidly, the color only slowly returning to her face.

"Well, kind of, I suppose. I really don't want to get lost, though. I've never been up the west side of the staircases before…"

"Well okay, I've got a plan," said Lily once she'd caught her breath again. "Now this is a big-time secret so no talking, okay?" she looked earnestly at Snape who nodded mutely.

"Alright," Lily continued. "James is making a map of the entire school. That's part of the reason we need to go exploring in the first place. A cartographer needs to see his model, after all."

"Okay, I'm following so far," Snape said.

"Good," said Lily. "Now obviously, he's started already. So at dinner tonight I'll just have him show you the way to get from the great hall to the tower on the map, okay? Then you can remember and find us tonight. Meet us in the common room at 10:35 p.m."

"Um, won't there still be people awake at that time?"

"Yes, in fact, I know there will be. Nearly the whole house, probably. But it's okay, they're throwing a start-of-the-year party tonight. So no one'll notice us all sneak out."

"Oh, good plan."

Lily suddenly pulled her jacket tighter. "It's uh…kind of cold all of the sudden." Her stomach growled. "Also apparently I'm hungry. Let's go to supper, okay?"

"Yeah okay," said Snape, smiling. "I hope the others don't mind that I commandeered you for the evening."

"Meh, they'll live," said Lily, standing up. She had just reached down to grab Snape's hand and help him up when they heard the unmistakable sound of someone wearing a long cloak stepping through the forest somewhere to their right. With a yelp, Lily yanked Snape up and the two of them collided. Tripping over each other, they ran all the way to the castle, mindful of the eyes they were sure were on their backs.

* * *

><p>In truth, James's childish scrawl and disproportionate hallways and corridors may have been more of a hindrance to Snape rather than a help, but he managed to get to the portrait before ten-thirty.<p>

"Password?" asked the woman in the frame. Snape noted it was the woman's dress and not the woman herself that was pink. He shook his head briefly, thinking of Lily's childish description.

"Audentes Fortuna Iuvat," he responded cooly.

He had taken great care to not wear his Slytherin robes at all in the hopes that the woman in the picture might mistake him for one of her students. It would have worked better if he had had some spare Gryffindor robes but he didn't, so for now, muggle clothing would have to do.

"Do you know what it means?" inquired the dorm guardian.

"Uh…well, no, actually," muttered Snape, staring at the ground.

The large woman smiled. "Spoken like a true eleven year old Gryffindor. Or the friend of one, at least." She winked and then swung her picture forward to reveal the entrance behind it.

"Cool," said Snape, and he clambered inside.

True to Lily's word there was a party in full swing, and no one seemed to pay Snape a single glance. He inched over into the corner Lily had told him to wait in, only, to his immense surprise, he wasn't the only one who had arrived early.

Sirius black was sitting with his back to the wall and his head in his arms.

"Sirius?" Snape asked, clearly surprised.

Sirius's head jerked up. "Wha—Snape?" he demanded. There was a brief pause and then:

"What are you doing here?" they both demanded at the same time.

Sirius moaned. "Oh, what does it look like?" he snapped. "I'm waiting for those idiots to get here."

Snape dropped to his knees next to Sirius. "I _really_ didn't think you were going to come tonight," he noted.

"Yeah, well, I'm here."

"Oh," Snape glanced around at the staircase to the girls' rooms to see if Lily was coming yet. "Well, are you good at exploring?" he asked.

Sirius stared daggers at the other boy, seeming appalled by the very thought of the Slytherin. "Oh my god, shut up, why do you all feel the need to _talk_ so much?" He was silent for a minute and pulled at his hair. "And I am an _excellent_ explorer, thank you very much! Regulus and I used to always sneak around the house by night, and go into London and—" Sirius stopped suddenly and flung his face back onto his knees. Snape looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"Er, is Regulus like your brother or something?"

"Y—" Sirius stopped himself again. This boy talked with Lily and the others a lot, he'd seen them together at meals. He'd already messed up that first night and told Lily he was an only child. He'd thought that was the end of it but then Lupin had asked and so he'd lied again and now he couldn't tell the truth to Snape or it would all unravel, and there was nothing more embarrassing, or potentially dangerous, than being caught in a lie.

"No."

"What?"

"He's not a person, you idiot," it wasn't a total lie, Sirius didn't think Regulus was really a human. Not a _normal_ one at least. "He's my…cat."

"Your…cat?"

"YES!" Sirius yelled loud enough that, over the music, a few of the older students were able to hear him, and they glanced briefly in his direction. Sirius covered his mouth with his hand. "Yes, okay?" he said considerably quieter.

"Then, why didn't you bring him here to school with you?" Snape asked.

"I brought my owl," Sirius answered shortly.

"You can bring both, you know," Snape pointed out.

"Well, I didn't feel like it," said Sirius through gritted teeth. "Little freak needs to learn to be independent anyway."

"Okay," said Snape, showing his hands in surrender. "Alright, I'm sure your parents will take good…care of your…um…cat."

"Yeah…" Sirius narrowed his eyes and looked away.

This was getting awkward and Snape decided Lily and the others needed to arrive soon. "Hey, what time is it?" he asked Sirius.

Sirius waved his arm at Snape and said, "Check your own watch."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm wearing Regulus's watch and it currently thinks it is four-thirty yesterday morning! Damn thing has never been right."

"Regulus's—"

Sirius's eyes widened and his head snapped back up. "Yes! My great uncle Regulus. He…died in '59, and…left his watch to my dad and he gave it to…me."

"You named your…cat after your dead great uncle?"

Sirius covered his face with his shaking hands. "Yes, okay, I did, alright?"

Snape inched a little ways away from Sirius Black, almost dying of relief when he saw Lily race down the girls' stairs. She pushed her way through the loud crowd of people and then, after waving briefly at the two of them, dashed up into the boys' dorms. She reappeared a moment later with Lupin, Peter, and James in tow.

"Let's do this thing!" she said excitedly, and the five of them—now six—sneaked out the portrait hole and into the hallway.

"No telling on us, okay?" James instructed the picture woman.

"Got it," she rolled her eyes. "And no telling on me for letting him in," she pointed to Snape, "if you all happen to get caught."

"Deal," said James. "Now then," he continued, facing his companions. "I think we should split up."

There was a pause.

"Because that's _not_ the beginning to every horror movie I've ever seen," Lily commented.

"No, it's a good idea," Lupin said, nodding to James. "We'll cover more ground!"

"Here," said Peter, and from his bag he withdrew various sketchpads and pencils. "Take these, everyone, and draw what you find!"

"Draw and _label,_ please," James begged.

"What for?" asked Sirius with a hint of disdain.

"For our map, of course," insisted James.

"We're…cartographers now?" Sirius said.

"Yes," said James eagerly. "We are going to create the best interactive map this school has ever seen."

"You mean the only," said Lupin, laughing.

"Doesn't stop it from being the best, now, does it?" said James.

"Okay," said Lily, placing her pencil in the back pocket of her jeans. "Let's go you guys!"

"Alright…" Lupin pointed to Peter, Snape, and Lily. "Let's do this systematically. You three take second floor since we've already got most of the first. James, Sirius, and I'll take the third floor, and we'll meet back here at around…midnight-thirty?"

"Deal," said Peter, grabbing Lily's and Snape's hands, "See you soon!" Lily waved goodbye as they set off down the stairs, almost tripping as Peter pulled her and the Slytherin along.

"How exciting," said Lupin casually. "You ready James? Sirius?"

James nodded happily and Sirius heaved a great sigh. "We're all going to be caught and expelled," he said gloomily.

"Don't be ridiculous," said James. He looked back at the portrait and noticed the lady had meandered off. Confident no one important would see them—most of the other pictures were asleep or elsewise preoccupied—James pulled something else out of Lupin's bag. "I've got just the thing."

With a flourish he withdrew an immensely large cloak, one that would have been big enough for four or five people, and certainly could cover the three of them.

Sirius stared. The cloak was awfully fluid and silvery. "Is that a…" he cursed that he was actually showing interest in this messy-haired specky kid.

"Yes it is," said James. "And it's mine. Also, unlike most single children, I am willing to share my prized possession."

"That's good," said Lupin, swinging the cloak around his and James's shoulders. "Step on up, Sirius."

Sirius, fascinated by the cloak, crept in between the two other boys and shivered a little as James pulled the cloak over their heads. "And we're off."

"Let's just hope the others don't get caught," remarked Lupin.

"We'll let them use the cloak next time," James promised.

And so they carefully traipsed down the stairs. As they began documenting their findings on the third floor, Sirius fiddled with his brother's watch. It was an intricate thing, the numbers replaced by runes and the band of it pure white, with Regulus's name emblazoned in a dark red, his favorite color. It had actually been a present from Regulus's uncle Marius, and although he was a squib, Regulus had thrown such a fit when Uncle Cygnus had tried to take it away from him that Mother and Father had, in a rare fit of decency, allowed him to keep it. In Sirius's opinion it had been a power move on his parent's part, wanting more to be in control of their relatives than to make Regulus happy, but all had ended well and Regulus normally never let that watch out of his sight.

Until Sirius had, for lack of a better word, stolen it. Stupid, really, to steal your little brother's watch, but Sirius hadn't been able to leave without taking something. He felt better almost, when he was wearing it, except for the nuisance that while Sirius was perfectly capable of translating the watch to normal numbers, it still seemed to continuously show the incorrect time.

"Dude, snap out of it," James poked Sirius in the neck. "Focus here."

"Oh, right," said Sirius, stepping out of the cloak. They had arrived in the trophy room and there was no one around.

"Hey Sirius," said Lupin, examining one of the many golden shields with the Invisibility Cloak draped over one arm. "Is this anyone you know? Name's Black."

Sirius meandered over and took a look. "My great-great aunt Belvina, yeah. God only knows what she did to get in here." Then he lapsed back into his normal silence.

"'kay then," said Lupin. "Hey James, let's label this room and get out, it's boring as hell...are we even on the third floor anymore?"

"Not just yet," said James, holding up a hand. "Come look at this."

"Hey," said Lupin excitedly, "this says…Sela…man…ya. Selamanya? What's that even mean? That's going to be my new favorite word."

"It means forever in Indonesian, now get over here, and look at this!" said James anxiously.

"What, what, what?" Lupin strode over, dragging Sirius with him.

"Check it out."

On the shelf to which James was pointing, a small and misty orb was nestled between a couple of small club trophies.

"What's a crystal ball doing here?" asked Lupin, bewildered.

"It's not a crystal ball, you idiot, it's an award," said Sirius harshly. He decided it was worth speaking if it was to tell someone they were wrong.

They both looked at him with intrigue, silently asking for an explanation. Sirius looked at them in confusion. Then he sighed. It was frustrating, almost, being around people who weren't Regulus. Regulus would know what Sirius was getting at without needing to speak any words. These two were not so attuned.

"It's a device for watching people," Sirius explained. "Like a crystal ball that sees the present, but only for whichever person you set it to."

"And that's an award, _how?_" asked James skeptically. "I still think it's here by mistake."

"Not an award for a student, idiot, one for a teacher."

"Yeah, a pedophile-stalker teacher."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I heard one of my great aunts talking about these things once. I'm sure this is one of what she meant. If a teacher ever had a child of their own attend the school then the board would give them one of these, to hopefully satisfy their urge to watch their kid all the time, and to stop them from bringing in non-regulated devices to monitor said child."

There was a second of silence then James asserted, "Yep. Stalker."

"Why would that be in the trophy room?" asked Lupin.

"Well it would have been more of like a _loan_ rather than an actual gift, so I imagine the school would take it back when the teacher retired or their child graduated. Presumably this is the best place to put it."

"Let's steal it," said James.

"What?" sqeaked Lupin, "We can't do that!"

"Sure we can!"

"James, control your impulses!"

Sirius let James and Lupin argue, at a rather loud volume, for all of about twenty seconds before telling them to shut up and look again at the misty ball.

It was all of the size of a very large marble, so they had to lean close together to see into it.

"You think it'll show us someone?"

"Possibly, just shut up and watch."

But the orb was completely dark.

"Lame," said James, straightening up. "Nothing in there."

"You're an imbecile," sighed Sirius. "The person must just be in a dark place, is all. Somewhere with no light."

"Still boring. Hey, do you think we could reset it to follow someone else?"

"Possibly," Sirius shrugged.

"Sirius," asked Lupin, carefully folding the Invisibility Cloak and putting it in his pocket until such a time as they finally left the trophy room. "What did you say those things were called?"

"I…uh, I don't remember, actually. I was little when they told me and it was such a large word." He seemed a little embarrassed.

"Well that's okay, we can look it up later. Guys, are we ready to go?"

James put his sketchpad safely into his pocket. He nodded and Sirius, who was feeling strangely happy, nodded as well.

"Alright, let's just—" James started.

But he stopped dead, a look of absolute horror in his eyes. Shaking a little, Lupin followed his gaze. Sirius groaned. All around them, the trophies and shields were reflecting the same distorted, _angry_ face.

"You guys couldn't have argued a little more quietly," muttered Sirius bitterly.

"Yikes," said Lupin.

It was the astronomy professor who descended upon them angrily, because apparently teachers had nothing better to do all night than wander around aimlessly. And while James was upset that they weren't hidden under the cloak, he was at least grateful that Lupin had managed to hide it. He really didn't want it confiscated, it had been given to him by his mother and he had promised not to lose it, after all.

James and Lupin followed the teacher out of the trophy room, and Sirius, after casually reaching behind him to snatch the tiny marble person-watcher, trailed along after them. He put the ball into the pocket of his slacks and for some reason, found he felt…excited. Instead of miserable, a detention with his new friends sounded…fun.

_/signed tenkuroi_


	3. 0 In That Poor Planning Shapes Futures

If this was bed rest, Regulus decided it was not worth the hype. It had been hours, since he had passed out, _hours._ His parents had long since forgotten he was up here, holed away in his room, because they were busy with things. Regulus saw no reason for Kreacher to keep him under this intense house arrest.

Coughing a little, Regulus sat back up straight and crossed his legs under the blankets. Bending down to compensate for the fast-setting sun, he continued to read out loud.

"_Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris  
>Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit<br>litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto_…"

'Cough cough.'

_"Vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;_  
><em>multa quoque et bello passus…"<em>

More coughing followed by a slight swimming sensation in his head.

_"Dum conderet urbem,_  
><em>inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,<em>  
><em>Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae—"<em>

Regulus sneezed. "Oh _fuck this,"_ he yelled, tossing the leather-bound to the floor where it landed with a loud sound. There was a scuffling noise from under his bed. "I don't want that book anymore, I hate it now."

An instant later, Kreacher had apparated to his bedside. "Regulus, is everything okay? Why are you throwing things, are you hurting?"

Regulus thrashed onto his side and complained loudly, "What, do you have me on radar or something now? Leave me alone and let me out of here!"

The elf was so short that only the tips of his ears could be seen poking past the edge of the bed as he paced back and forth fretfully. "Master Orion said to keep you here until you were feeling better. And you are not better yet."

"He didn't mean it!" Regulus insisted, burying his face in his pillow. "He just said that—randomly!—he didn't mean for you to actually do it! He was just saving face while that healer was here…"

Kreacher, who was by now tired of denying all manner of negative things Regulus said about his parents, decided to change the subject. "Your Latin has gotten worse," he commented, blinking his large eyes. "You are not pronouncing things correctly, well I suppose in a way you are, but you're confusing yourself and mixing classical with ecclesiastical."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Well I'm sorry, my head's a _little confused_ right now. Will you bring me alcohol?"

"No."

"Fine then, my wand?"

"You do not have a wand," Kreacher insisted. He was a little happy, however, to see that Regulus was capable of acting somewhat more…immature, if that was the right word, even if he had to brush by death and spend subsequent hours magically bound in his bed to get there. It was good to know that the kid was, however rarely, still ten years old.

"Don't be ridiculous, Kreacher, it's right over there on the ground where I threw it. There, right behind you…here, fine, I'll do it." Regulus pulled himself to the edge of the bed and leaned as far off of it as he could. He stretched and was barely able to brush the handle of Orion's invalid wand. Slowly, he eased it close enough to grab, Kreacher watching apprehensively.

But Regulus didn't immediately try anything; he just held the wand close to his chest. Kreacher's breathing evened out a bit.

"Regulus, were you reading to yourself?" he asked

Regulus paused. "Um, yes," he said.

"Why exactly were—"

"Leave, Kreacher," said Regulus waving his hand. "Since you won't release your spell and let me from this damn bed, then I have other things to attend to."

"What are you—"

"I am working on something. Now go."

Kreacher left the room muttering promises of how he would tell Master and Mistress that Regulus was messing with Orion's wand but Regulus just called softly after him, "yeah, yeah, whatever, just go."

Glancing back as he closed the door, Kreacher saw a pair of bright, shiny blue eyes glowing briefly from under Regulus's bed. When he moved to walk back in, however, Regulus flicked the wand and the door slammed in the elf's face. A moment later he answered the summons of his Master and left Regulus to his own devices.

* * *

><p>It was the next night, rather late and around the time the crickets were going berserk with their singing, that Kreacher declared Regulus officially insane.<p>

"No," he said for what had to be the ninth time. "Not happening!"

"Father won't even notice," Regulus insisted, pacing around Sirius's bedroom, for Kreacher had finally released him from his own, unable to take any more of the child's incessant complaining. Unfortunately, this renewal of freedom had also included the reappearance of Regulus's former attitude and love for daring and sometimes suicidal escapades.

Like just then, for example.

"Look if you don't help me with this then I'll just do it myself, end up screwing something up, and then probably severing a limb or something along those lines. I'm just asking for a little security here."

"No I am not helping you to sign and seal your own death warrant, I don't care _what_ Sirius stole from you, you are not going through with his half-planned notion! Also, now, I understand that you are pleased to be allowed out of your own room again, but must you always come in here?"

Regulus pitched himself forward onto Sirius's bed. "Yes, actually," he said. "Now where was I? Oh yes, help me with this, and father won't catch me."

"Are you implying that your task would fail without my assistance?"

"Yes," Regulus rolled over onto his back stretched his arms towards the ceiling.

"You are trying to flatter me and it is not going to work."

Regulus slumped over onto his side and adopted a confused expression. "Always worked before."

"You are out of your mind."

Kreacher was quite close to yelling at this point, but it didn't matter much as neither of Regulus's parents was home at the time. They were quite alone in the house. At least, that was what Kreacher had assumed until he heard a small crash from down the hall. He made to walk out Sirius's bedroom door to investigate, but Regulus, who had sat up as suddenly as if he had been electrocuted, stopped him with a strangled yell.

Kreacher paused and looked at Regulus quizzically. "Are you alright?" he asked in response to the panicked look on Regulus's face.

"Yeah, yeah," Regulus bit his lower lip. "Look, I'll make you a deal!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Kreacher, effectively distracted from the crash he had heard.

"If you help me sneak one of the portkeys from father's private study, then I…will stop smoking."

There was a brief pause before:

"You _don't_ smoke. At all."

"You gonna' bet all on that assumption?" Regulus smirked, shrugged, and then slumped against the wall, his legs crooked underneath him.

"Well I can't say I'm glad that your attitude has returned in full swing, but at least you really are feeling better."

"Heh."

Stealing was something Kreacher, although screw all if he'd admit it, was very adept at. Regulus took full advantage of this.

"Come on," he insisted, finally vacating Sirius's bedroom. He peered down the hallway in both directions before sneaking off to the library, a door off of which led to Orion's study. By now Kreacher was fully resigned to the little break-in and to be perfectly honest it hadn't taken all that much convincing. "I'll have you go in and do the actual getting."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, I'll keep guard for Father. He shouldn't be coming home soon, but…just in case"

Kreacher tugged on Regulus's sleeve to get his attention again. "This seems very backwards. Why don't you go in and get it? I thought you only needed me for the actual programming."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Because you idiot, Father's got this shit warded against me and Sirius. Doesn't seem to trust us or something, but I doubt you even crossed his mind."

"Thank you, I appreciate it, Regulus," Kreacher griped.

"Anytime," Regulus smiled and sat down in one of the library armchairs, a random book in his hands. He sneezed once and then began reading. "Anytime you're ready Kreacher," he waved a hand absently to the very heavy colored and ominous looking door that, when opened, would reveal Orion Black's desk, private work things, books, and other items of varying degrees of secrecy. Kreacher bit his lip almost painfully.

"You really will call me back if Master or Mistress…especially if Master…comes back, won't you?"

Regulus nodded. Kreacher thought it was awfully easy for him to look so damn smug from his safe position _not_ intruding upon private property.

Stepping into the study and Kreacher's heart immediately began to race. He started sweating and his ears trembled. The desk was his first thought, but then he realized no, that wasn't where Orion would keep such things. Instead Kreacher moved to the impressive filing cabinet which stood towering over the desk chair. It seemed to shake and rain little fragments of dust down on him. Taking a deep breath, Kreacher wrapped his fingers around a handle and pulled, opening one of the lower drawers which should have contained things alphabetically from O to T.

It was only the second drawer up from the ground but he still had trouble reaching it, and in order to see inside he had to carefully climb up the side, positioning his feet on the sliding mechanism that guided the drawer in and out of its closed position. He shoved his head and arms into the drawer, searching, and again thought angrily about Regulus and how he was relaxing through all of this.

Finally, nose in a folder labeled "Transportation," Kreacher pulled out what his magic detection told him was one of what he was looking for. He hopped back down to the ground, slammed the drawer shut and dashed out of Orion's study, a shiny bottle cap in his hand.

When he saw the elf return, Regulus leapt up from the chair, tossed his book to the side and dashed up next to his servant. "Well go on," he said. "Finish it!"

"Right here?" asked Kreacher skeptically.

"Well…okay you're right here's not the best place."

"Then let's go to your room, Regulus," insisted Kreacher, and he started to turn around but Regulus snatched the cap out of his hands and instead ran into Sirius's room leaving Kreacher with no option but to follow.

"To Hogwarts, correct?"

"Yes, can portkeys get inside the gates?"

"Of course they can, it's only wizard apparation that can't."

Regulus, who had been kneeling on the floor so as to be at head level with Kreacher, looked slowly from the bottle cap he had placed on the carpet between them. "Oh so I suppose you_could_ apparate in and out of the school grounds?"

"Of course I can, Regulus," Kreacher's voice suddenly hardened. "And don't think for an instant that I won't come and get you if you get into any sort of trouble. Or if anyone sees you, for the love of God, Regulus, don't let anyone there see you!"

"But I need to see Sirius!" Regulus insisted.

"No you don't! Just take your watch back and go!"

"What if he's wearing it?"

Kreacher glared. "Then call me and I'll knock him out first," he said.

"Oh Kreacher, you would do that for me?" asked Regulus with a fake sugariness to his voice.

"I'm about to reconsider my promise to fill in this thing's destination."

Regulus scoffed. "Sorry, sorry," he muttered, but made no further promises about what he would or would not attempt to do on campus. He and Kreacher leaned down to take a better look at the bottle cap.

It was small, insignificant, faded, and rusted in a few places. It looked dirty, almost, but kind of archaic.

"I'm going to make it into a necklace," said Regulus promptly. It seemed the thing to do.

Kreacher rolled his eyes, but still he snapped his fingers and the portkey flew up into the air to hover a few feet off the ground. "Here," he said, waving his little pointed hand over it. A small cord fashioned itself to the metal and then the whole object glowed for a moment or two, vibrating, and split into two pieces, knocking into each other now and then as they dangled on the string. When they were once again grey and still, the necklace fell from the air and Kreacher caught it, holding it out to Regulus.

"Now be careful and remember," he said, giving Regulus the finished product. "It is not activated when you touch it, only when you reconnect the two pieces."

"Why thank you, Kreacher, that's some pretty advanced stuff."

The servant couldn't help but feel a small swell of pride deep in his little chest. Regulus was not impressed by much; in fact, Kreacher could not remember him ever speaking such honest praise about someone before, unless of course it had been Sirius, but now Sirius was so very far away.

Sirius—that reminded Kreacher of something.

"Regulus?" he asked.

Regulus looked up at him. "Yes?" he said.

"I've changed my mind. When you get there, please deck that idiot brother of yours."

An almost dangerous smile had started to form on Regulus's face. He stood up and started searching through his brother's dresser drawers, stopping only when he found one of the few warm sweaters Sirius had left behind. It was grey and soft. Regulus slipped it on over his shirt.

"What?" he asked when he noticed Kreacher looking at him strangely. "It's almost night, it's September, it's cold." He shrugged.

"Yes but you are not going anywhere right now, you are not going to be all the way at school when it's the _middle of the night—"_ Kreacher's voice got louder and louder until he was almost yelling but it was no use. Regulus seized the cap from around his neck, reconnected the two pieces, and had disappeared before Kreacher had even finished his sentence.

Groaning, Kreacher ran a hand over his face. This was all so much more trouble than it was worth. With a sigh, he left Sirius's room and walked back down into the kitchen to start an extremely late dinner, remembering that several guests would be over later that night, including Walburga's brother. He prayed Regulus was right, and that no one would care enough to ask where he was.

* * *

><p>Regulus, while perfectly capable of feeling the emotion, did not usually act on his surprise in any visible manner. It had been something that Sirius had always taken as a challenge, trying to scare, startle, or shock Regulus into screaming at every opportunity.<p>

"…shit."

This, however, was an understandable exception. So much blind faith had Regulus had in Kreacher's spell that he had never even paused to suspect this.

For an instant he had absolutely no idea where he was. He was in an alleyway between two buildings and the last he had heard, Hogwarts did not have paved hallways. He heard noises coming from the main street and walked out of the darkness and into the glow of a streetlight.

Then slowly it clicked. He was in Hogsmeade, and the castle was not far away. Regulus allowed his breathing to slow back down to a normal rate. In fact, this was a good opportunity, actually. Regulus turned around, taking in all that was around him. He had arrived in the shopping district as opposed to the residential area, and so most everything here was a store of some kind.

Regulus was fascinated. He had never been to Hogsmeade before. With a slight grimace, he thought that he had never really been out of his _house_ before, the only exception being in-family social events. Those Regulus had always considered a kind of torture where he was dragged as an afterthought to some uncle's manor where the women would croon over little Sirius while Regulus would stand at his side, a death grip on his brother's arm, shaking sometimes because of all the booming voices. As soon as he was able to free his glossy raven hair from their cloying fingers, Sirius would disentangle himself from the adults and take Regulus to some far off corner of the residence where he could breathe a little easier. At least until one of their cousins dragged Sirius off to play, leaving Regulus to wonder if anyone could see him where he sat, surrounded by shadows.

Crowds were something that always did a number on him; he preferred to be alone, and so far had found no one whose company was agreeable to him other than Sirius and, to an extent, Kreacher. He often supposed maybe he would do better if the crowds were in larger places, like outside or in huge halls and not the labyrinth style mansions of his aunts and uncles' homes, where the claustrophobia seemed to lie in wait for him.

Hands in his pockets, Regulus wandered down the sparsely populated street. A few people, residents of the village he assumed, scampered here and there with their arms full of shopping bags or their hands full of take out from the small restaurants.

Then a shop coming up on his right as he carefully tread down the stone street captured his attention. He stopped dead and stared at it for a while. It was a candy shop called Honeyduke's, and Regulus couldn't help but smile. Sirius would just love to go there. Almost without thinking, Regulus walked inside.

"Hello, can I help you at all?" Regulus jumped a little when he was immediately addressed by a girl he assumed was some way associated with the ownership of the shop. He'd barely had time to walk over the threshold before she'd hurried up to him. Taking a moment to breathe, Regulus noted he was the only person in the store right now, probably due to the growing darkness outside.

"I…" he searched for something to say. The girl who'd startled him seemed to realize she'd taken him off guard and immediately backtracked a bit.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm just a bit eager to get out of here is all, I was hoping to close up early. We don't usually get a lot of people in here unless it's a school weekend, which it…isn't." She then cocked her head a bit to the side and looked more closely at Regulus, as though it had just dawned on her that he was roughly ten years old and not a citizen of this tiny village. She paused to contemplate him. To Regulus's relief, she came to the wrong conclusion.

"You must be a student," she observed with a small amount of awe. "Sneaked down here, huh? Impressive. Come on, let's find something you'll like," and she placed a hand on his shoulder and led him deeper into the store amongst rows of sweets and novelties. Regulus immediately calmed down. She seemed like a kind enough person. She introduced herself even at one point, holding a hand out for Regulus to shake, which he did, not in turn uttering his own name, but she seemed unperturbed by this.

"Here these are new just this week," she stood on the tips of her sneakers, even though she was quite tall already, to just graze her fingers over a small blue box. She tapped at it a few times until it fell off the shelf. She only just caught it before it hit the floor.

"They're delicious," she insisted. "I swear. Mom has to keep restocking because I eat them all while she's not looking," she laughed. Regulus thought she certainly looked like she got her fill of sugar, but her laugh was a nice sound and it made her curly brown hair bounce on her head. "Come over here next…" and so she led Regulus from one end of the shop to the other, seizing boxes and bags and individual candies until his arms were uncomfortably full. She seemed to have totally forgotten her earlier wish to get him in and out of her store in a timely manner because a long time passed before she dragged Regulus up to the counter.

"Here, hand me these," she said quickly. "Now, before my parents come by to check and see if I've closed up yet, hurry!"

Regulus tilted his head to the side questioningly as she piled everything she'd selected for him into a neat little box with a silver and gold bow at the top. "Here," she said breathlessly, handing the charmed box to him, everything fitted magically inside. Regulus took it in his hands. It was surprisingly light for how much had been put in there.

"Thank you a lot," he said, and was just reaching into the pocket of his pants for his family's bank card when she waved at him absent mindedly.

"No, it's free."

"For serious?" asked Regulus, holding the box close to his chest. He must have looked cute or something at the moment because she let out a brief "aww" before explaining to him that he was pretty cool for sneaking around like he was.

"Rule breaking," she said. "I like to encourage it."

Regulus nodded. "This is for my brother," he explained, but then had to duck out of range because she looked like she was going to hug him for what he'd said.

"That is so sweet!"

Regulus nodded again from his position further away. Just then he heard a sort of muted noise from behind and turned around. Through the window of the shop he could see two figures wrapped warmly in cloaks approaching the door.

"Oh!" exclaimed the girl. "It's my parents. Here, go out the back way so they don't see you."

She pushed him behind the counter where he was faced with several doors, and then after briefly patting him on the head, rushed out to greet, and potentially waylay her parents.

Regulus didn't much want to be seen by anyone else at the moment and so he chose a door quickly, and at random. It turned out to be the wrong one as he was immediately met with a flight of stairs.

"God damn it."

This was the door to what must have passed for a store cellar, not the way out as he had wanted, but it was too late to go through the other door now, or he'd be seen. Cursing inwardly, Regulus jumped down the stairs and hoped beyond hope that none of the three others would see the need to come here.

Finding a hiding place, just in case, seemed like a reasonable idea though. Frantically, Regulus crept around boxes and shelves, looking for someplace to wait things out, still unsure of how he was going to get back out without garnering any attention. Then he stumbled over something, only just able to keep his footing.

The floor itself was comprised of large, square tiles, and one of them, apparently, was loose. Regulus quickly bent down and examined it.

Now _this_ was the sort of thing he had always hoped to find back at Grimmauld Place: a loose floorboard with space underneath it, or perhaps a whole room. He was jerked out of his fantasy, though, when he heard the doorknob rattle briefly, and then the door at the top of the stairs swung open, creaking a little. Light flooded in and while Regulus was still successfully hidden in shadow, he was in the middle of the floor. Whoever it was, they were going to find him. Acting on instinct, he lifted up the tile with surprising strength and reached under it. There was space, and a lot of it.

There were footsteps coming down the stairs now. Regulus couldn't see who was coming through the shelf that blocked him from view, but he wasn't about to find out. Silently he slid into the hole beneath the tile and let it fall back into place above him. He himself was free-falling in darkness.

Then he hit something hard, and it must have been a staircase because he rolled painfully down it for a while before stopping himself with outstretched hands.

He stood up painfully and felt around on the stairs until he located his box of Honeyduke's merchandise, completely unharmed from his tumble. Cautiously, he stepped forward into the darkness. He took a few blind steps down before he was on level ground again.

"Okay," breathing slowly, his mind still playing catch up from the last few minutes, Regulus reached a hand out to the wall. He smirked. "This is a passageway."

It had to lead to the castle, where else would it go? Regulus trailed his hand along the stone wall lightly, part just for the hell of it and part to make up for the fact that he couldn't see all that well. The tunnel was long and as he went further it seemed to get even darker until Regulus had no choice but to draw Orion's wand.

"Lumos," he muttered, and a burst of white light exploded from the wand. It bounced down the passage, sparking and crackling. Pieces of the rock wall crumbled.

"Oops," Regulus whispered when the light had finally faded away and the engulfing silence of the place had returned. "Okay, here we go again, er, _lux,"_ he shook the wand a little to the left. This time a pale yellow light emanated from the handle. Frowning, and thinking this was surely against some safety measure, Regulus flipped the wand around and held it by the opposite end with the handle lighting up the dark expanse before him.

"Perfect," he breathed, and continued on his way.

The tunnel eventually led up to a sort of hatch and, hoping to god that there was no one around, Regulus opened it and clambered out, his glowing wand skittering to the floor.

It was a less than graceful entrance, and Regulus grimaced at his own clumsiness, but he picked up his wand none the less and stood up straight. The hatch behind him resealed itself and indeed looked like it did not even exist. There was just an old statue. Regulus appeared to have climbed out of its back.

"Oh…kay…" then suddenly a little nervous, Regulus headed off to find a staircase. He didn't know where the Gryffindor dorm rooms were exactly, but he knew he had to go _up._

Only it wasn't long before Regulus was overwhelmingly lost. He'd gone up stairs, he'd gone down stairs, and he'd been hurled sideways by a particularly sentient flight of steps changing up its path on him while he was on the very topmost stair.

Lying against the wall with the wind knocked out of him and various portraits peering down at him in curiosity, Regulus could just imagine what Kreacher would say. That he was unprepared, that he hadn't thought things through, that he was acting out in this outrageous manner to compensate for the fact that he was so depressed and missing his—

"Sirius is a real freak, I don't know why you're all so hell bent on…whatever exactly it is you're trying to accomplish with him—landmark, Peter."

"Oh, right."

"Peter, your artwork sucks, hand me back the paper…._and_ the pen, dude, now you were saying, Severus?"

Regulus, who was at this point quite willing to go with whatever came at him, and quite _unwilling_ to move, remained completely stationary as a group of three people walked around the corner.

"I was saying that I think you're fighting a losing battle here, he's just too—holy shit!"

The kid in the middle had tripped over Regulus where he sat, exhausted, on the floor and tumbled down onto the hard ground, legs draped over Regulus's.

The girl in the group stopped walking, and the other boy skidded to a stop and backtracked a little to avoid crashing as well.

"_Who_ are you?" asked the girl. She had short, red hair that was kind of tangled on her head and rather bright eyes. She didn't seem angry, though, only shocked.

The kid on the ground grunted and rolled himself off of Regulus. Then he himself stood up. He was rather shorter than the girl, but much taller than the other boy, and had short black hair and matching eyes. He kept opening his mouth, but couldn't think of something to say.

The other boy spoke up instead. He was very little and very angular in every way. Regulus was almost put off by his sharp face. "What, uh, what house are you in, exactly?" he asked.

Regulus held his side with one hand and his box with the other. When he trusted himself to speak without squeaking he closed his eyes.

_I can't let them know I'm not actually a student here,_ he thought.

"I'm not actually a student here," he said. "Fuck!" he slapped his free hand to his mouth, eyes popping back open. "I mean…"

What was wrong with him? He was usually always so composed.

But when he chanced a look up at the three students who had surrounded him, they looked anything but alarmed. In fact, the girl had look reminiscent of the worker from Honeyduke's who had thought decimating school safety policy in the middle of the night was cause for free candy.

"Oh my god, you _sneaked in?_" she demanded. "That is…so awesome, come on, _stand up!"_ she reached down and grabbed his wrist, yanking hard. "So awesome, why…" she was a little breathless. "Why did you do that?"

With a smirk, Regulus found he was regaining his composure. "I have business to attend to here that could not wait until next year when I will be enrolled."

"Whoa, like what kind of—" but she was cut off by the taller of the two boys, who seemed to have more practical queries in mind.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Regulus saw no reason to lie. "Regulus," he answered immediately, although admittedly omitting his last name.

An odd look crossed over the boy's face, but neither of the others seemed disturbed.

"Okay, then, Reg…u…Regi…Reg," said the girl. "My name is Lily, this is Peter, and Severus."

Regulus smiled awkwardly.

"Uh, Lily," interrupted the boy Peter. "How about _'redge', _not _'rag'…?"_

Lily paused. "Yes, okay, that does sound better."

Snape began ushering the three others down the hall, thinking they were less likely to get caught if they were moving. Lily was fascinated by Regulus and demanded he explain his mission.

"Something was stolen from me," he said simply. "I'm here to get it back."

Lily was loving the cryptic answers. "Neat," she said. "Hey, maybe you can help us for a while; we're marking landmarks of stuff. We're map making."

"You're making a map of Hogwarts?" asked Regulus as Severus grabbed both of his shoulders and pushed him around a corner before reaching back for the others.

"Yes," answered Peter. "With drawings and everything. Of course we'll probably remake it later…when one of us learns how to draw halfway decently. And then we'll bewitch it!"

Regulus was intrigued by their notion and listened attentively as Lily and Peter prattled on about their masterpiece, although both seemed downhearted at how long it would inevitably take them to finish.

"And we've got James, Remus, and Sirius off doing…well, they're supposed to be doing the third floor, but I don't doubt they've been sidetracked by now."

"Yes," said Snape wryly, "because I'm so sure _we're _still on the second floor."

"Yeah, don't know where we are, actually."

"And if we get caught by an instructor," said Regulus dryly, "I'll be expelled before I'm even enrolled!"

Even Snape laughed. Then he stopped abruptly and grabbed Regulus's wrist. He pushed up his sleeve a ways. Regulus's skin was pale, like he didn't get out into the sun too much, but still, it was there.

"Quite the tan line you've got here," said Snape. "Where's your watch?"

Regulus gently pulled his arm back. "Currently on the arm of a traitor," he remarked. Then he held up his box of Honeyduke's merchandise. "A cowardly thief, moreover, for whom I have brought candy from the village."

Lily's mouth dropped open, and she hugged Regulus, who by all means she now considered to be her friend. "That is so sweet!" she yelled. "You're adorable!"

Even Peter had a sentimental look on his face and Snape was smiling indulgently. Briefly Regulus wondered why everyone outside of his home seemed to think he was five years old. Surely he wasn't that small or that cute even. Sirius was the adorable one who everyone fawned over. He was the one with the soft, clean hair and the cobalt eyes. It was Sirius who would grow up to be as tall and handsome as Father.

"Yeah," said Regulus, disentangling himself from Lily. When he stepped away from her he realized begrudgingly that she had almost a head on him height-wise. Maybe he did appear to be really young. "Hey, if you're making a map of the school, are you going to include the grounds as well?"

"Hadn't thought about it," said Lily. Thankfully she'd lowered her voice and was back in what she considered to be a sort of espionage mode so they wouldn't get caught by teachers. "Should run that by Jamie."

"Well if you decide to it'd be cool," said Regulus as they walked up to a row of suits of armor. Lily was scribbling hastily on her sketchpad. Regulus didn't think her drawings were all that bad, although the helmets all seemed to have overly large eyes. "In fact, I can tell you now about how I got here, there's a pretty interesting passage that leads here from the village…"

_/signed tenkuroi_


	4. 0 In That Love Begets Strange Things

**_So now that I've finally got Sirius and Regulus in the same room together I don't seem to know what to do with them._**

* * *

><p>Within minutes the mission to systematically record the layout of the castle's second floor had transformed itself into a sort of crash tour of the school for the benefit of Regulus. He expressed the appropriate amount of fascination with the magical surroundings and moving portraits (he had nothing but disdain, however, for the unruly staircases, and planned to harbor that particular grudge for a long time) but in all honesty, Regulus was more intrigued by the people he was with than Hogwarts itself.<p>

So far he had discerned that they were two Gryffindors and a Slytherin; were hopelessly demographically mismatched, and that despite these facts, they seemed to get along just fine. Most importantly, these students seemed to know his brother, and hadn't finding Sirius been the whole point of this venture?

The only disconcerting thing was that the boy called Severus Snape kept looking at him sideways.

"Okay," said Lily breathlessly, leaning against a wall. "Let's think of heading back now, I think it's almost time to meet back up with Jamie and the others, and –wait, where the hell are we?"

"We are…by a window," Peter offered, staring through the clear panes and out onto the moonlit grounds below.

"This is just wonderful," Snape griped. "Lily, you went and got us lost."

"Yeah," she said. "Well… let's just, let's just try doubling back for a second."

They turned and walked down a random hallway, but it ended in a dead end.

"Shit," said Lily, turning around again. "Here, let's go back again. This wasn't the right way."

"If we could just find the stairs," suggested Peter.

Regulus almost found himself looking down on the situation with detached amusement. Back and forth they walked, looking more and more flustered. Eventually, Regulus stopped and leaned against the wall, smiling to himself and confident that, any second now, the three of them would turn around and backtrack for what had to be the third time.

Lily, Severus, and Peter trudged back up to Regulus and the three of them collapsed down on the ground at his feet.

"Well," said Lily in resignation. "I suppose we are hopelessly lost. How could this have—whoa!" She jumped to her feet and pointed frantically to Regulus.

In fact, all three students were staring at him now. "What?" he asked quizzically, and he turned to look at the wall.

Only there was no wall anymore, there was instead an ornate, golden door. Regulus tilted his head to the side and stared with the most confused expression on his face.

"A door," breathed Peter.

Lily approached the door slowly and reached out to grasp the heavy handle. She pushed down the latch on the doorknob and swung the door open. Severus, Peter and Regulus all peered around from behind her, each balancing themselves by laying a hand on her shoulder.

Inside they saw towers and towers of items in seemingly random order. There were stacks of broomsticks and piles of notebooks. The parapet of junk nearest to them seemed to consist entirely of the kind of contraband items a teacher might confiscate.

"Oh-_kay_," said Lily. "Interesting." And she stepped inside, her tennis shoes squeaking a little on the hard floor.

"Oh," Severus groaned. "We are so not supposed to be here," yet he was the first to follow Lily over the threshold.

The door swung slowly closed behind them, and they all kind of watched it happen, grimacing. Regulus thought maybe one of them should rush forward and hold it open, to guarantee they could get back out, but nobody made a move to do so.

For a second, Regulus even thought the door might disappear, but it didn't, so he breathed a little sigh of relief. Then his curiosity got the better of him, and he turned to Lily and the others.

"What is this place?" he asked his unofficial tour guides. They all shrugged, though, and Lily picked up a small, purple Frisbee off the floor.

"Dunno'," she admitted as she let it fly over their heads. "Let's check it out, though!"

"Okay," said Peter nervously. He didn't seem to want to touch anything, and neither did Severus, who was looking at the others as though they were out of their minds. The two of them positioned themselves by the door, unwilling to walk further into the massive room. Lily shrugged again, but grabbed Regulus by the hand and soon they lost sight of the other two as they disappeared behind a mountain of stacked books.

"I bet people hide things in here," said Regulus, flipping through the pages of one of the smaller books. "I'm no expert, but I don't think many teachers would be happy to see something like _this_. Look at these pictures!"

"Hey!" exclaimed Lily, who was buried up to her neck in a pile of clothing. "There's a camera in the pocket of this jacket!"

Regulus sauntered over to her. "And to whom do you think it belongs?" he asked softly, examining the small, black and silver item in Lily's hands. He had a bit of a thing for cameras, and had been meaning to upgrade from the old magic polaroid he'd unearthed in the attic of Grimmauld. The photosensitive film had a habit of twisting itself before contact with the positive paper, and that made it difficult to cut the photos straight.

"No idea," said Lily, checking to see if the camera was loaded. "Looks like it's got, you know…film or whatever. Smile!" And she held the camera in front of her eyes and snapped a fast, blinding picture of Regulus where he stood, surrounded by piles of pornographic books and old dress clothing.

"Gah!" He stumbled backwards a little. He had never, in all his ten—nearly eleven—years, taken a picture of _himself._ There were several portraits of him and Sirius either together or with family members that hung on the walls of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, but they had been painted. Never before had he had his _own_ picture snapped with a lens. It was a weird feeling, he decided, blinking rapidly, like now there was a piece of him somewhere deep inside that camera.

Lily turned the nob on the camera impatiently and then with a snip, the photo was cut free and fell slowly through the air. Regulus caught it.

"Nice," he said sarcastically to Lily. "I'm entirely off-centered."

"Oh whatever, then," said Lily. "I like it, I think you look adorable."

Regulus cringed a little when she said that. Lily leaned forward and yanked the picture out of his hands. "I'm going to keep it," she said. "It'll be the first picture to go in my photo album. I'm making a scrapbook of being at school," she added by way of explanation.

Regulus supposed that this would be okay, just so long as his parents never saw said picture album, or anyone related to him for that matter, he didn't need wayward cousins tattling on him to his mother and father, particularly his father. True, Regulus's father had fixed his face up for him not too long after the fact, but Regulus couldn't be sure how much of that was genuine caring, and how much was a want to keep the oncoming healer from noticing anything other than Regulus's little fainting mishap; he couldn't be positive, but he didn't try to lie to himself, either.

"Here," said Lily, startling him out of his thoughts. "You take the camera then, if you're so good."

Regulus took it from her and she gave him a smile he did not immediately return. Then she was off rummaging through more interesting artifacts while he messed about with the twists and nobs on the camera. It gave a small click or two, and he held it up to his ear.

"Hey!" shouted Lily, "Check it!"

Regulus looked over to her. She was holding what appeared to be a very old tiara with a bright blue emblem in the front. "It's covered in dust, but it's fancy! What on earth's it doing here with all this other junk?"

Regulus felt the camera shift in his hands. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Put it on!"

Lily complied and Regulus ran up closer to her and took a picture. He pulled it out of the camera while Lily laughed.

Things went on like that for a while; the two of them meandered throughout the colossal room, taking pictures of themselves and anything interesting. "Here, one more," Lily decided, grabbing Regulus by the shoulder and pushing the camera far out in front of them to get a picture of them both.

_Click._

Beaming, she cut it out carefully.

"Here," Regulus took it from her. "If I re-develop these in a certain potion I can make them move and then give them back to you."

"Okay," said Lily, who didn't seem to question the idea of Regulus coming back to the school sometime that year. She scratched absent-mindedly up and down her arm for a moment, and then suggested they head back to the door.

"It really is getting late," she insisted. "I don't want to worry James and the others."

"All right," agreed Regulus. He pocketed the dozen or so photos they had taken and the camera as well before following Lily back to Severus and Peter, who both looked relieved at the sight of them.

"Finally," complained Severus. "Now can we go back?"

"Sure," Lily nodded. "Sure, just let me mark this bizarre room down on my proto-map. Are you going back to the dungeons or do you want to crash up in the tower with the rest of us?"

Regulus looked to the other boy curiously, wanting to hear his answer.

"Well, I mean—I guess," he half-stuttered.

"No worries," piped up Peter happily. "Our tower's fun, you'll love it there. Now let's get _out_ of this creepy room!"

Everyone agreed, and they crept out back into the hallway. They were, however, just as hopelessly lost as they had been previously. It was a little while before Peter finally pointed and yelled breathlessly, "Staircase! Finally!"

Regulus trailed a little behind the others as they trekked up staircase after staircase. His pockets were uncomfortably full now, what with the camera, the pictures, and his purchase from the candy store.

He ran his hand over the small box full of sweets, and found himself thinking of Sirius again. The girl had mentioned Sirius earlier, and that he was off with several other boys doing work for this magical map as well. Suddenly the odds of actually running into Sirius seemed almost absolute. He would be waiting for his three friends to meet up with him at Gryffindor Tower, and he wouldn't be expecting Regulus. Neither would Lily, Peter, or Severus expect the two of them to know each other. All at once it was beginning to occur to Regulus that maybe this hadn't been altogether too intelligent of an idea.

He wanted his watch back, sure, but had he really needed it so badly as to journey up to the school to get it? Couldn't he have waited until summer, when Sirius would be _forced_ to come home? Or just sent a letter?

Regulus sighed to himself when he realized he had to admit Kreacher had been right all along. He just couldn't seem to avoid trouble now that his brother was gone, could he? It was becoming almost a sort of obsession on his part. Normally, he would follow Sirius around, doing what he said. It was always Sirius's idea, but now that he was off gallivanting at this Magical Arts school, Regulus was lost. Recreating Sirius's behavior on his own didn't usually work out too well for him—subconsciously a hand reached up to touch his cheek lightly—and suddenly he was afraid that seeking Sirius out wouldn't end too well, either.

Regulus started to worry in earnest. Would Sirius be angry with him? How angry would—

_[…don't really have emotions like normal people, do you?_

_[You've always been so different._

_[…remember that I love you.]_

Regulus stopped dead at the top of the stairs, the others still a few yards ahead of him. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell face first onto the railing, nearly tumbling over it.

He didn't hear Lily yell, didn't notice Severus grab him by his shoulders to pull him off the railing. Everything was darkness until he finally started to come to, Lily shaking him urgently.

"Oh my god, you're alive!" she said, relieved.

Regulus immediately started to squirm away from the three of them. He had been lying in Severus's lap, and the other two were awfully close to him. Lily reached a hand out to touch his face, but he stood up too quickly for her, swaying a little as darkness danced around the edges of his vision. She wasn't his Sirius, so she couldn't be so close to him, it wouldn't feel right.

"What happened?" asked Peter. His eyes were open so wide his eyebrows were nearly lost in his hairline. He and Severus stood up as well and walked slowly towards Regulus, who was trying desperately to regain his composure.

"Nothing," he panted. "Nothing, I'm fine. I just…sometimes that happens. I'm sorry."

"Is something wrong with you?" asked Lily. "I mean, like, do you have some sort of condition, or what?"

"No," said Regulus softly. "I mean, not anything with a name at least. I just, I pass out sometimes. It's fine, how long was I out for?"

"Just a few seconds," admitted Peter. "A minute at most."

"Good," said Regulus. "See? Usually it's longer. Don't…don't say anything, alright?"

"Say anything to who? Who would we tell?" asked Severus, again with the odd look on his face.

Regulus did some fast thinking. "People remember things. When I get here next year I don't want everyone making fun of me, is all." Even as he said it, it sounded lame, but two of the three of them seemed to buy it, so he left it at that.

"Did you hurt your head or anywhere when you fell?" asked Severus, concerned.

"No," laughed Regulus. "Believe me, my head's seen worse than a brief connection with a stair railing," he added before he could think to stop himself.

"Huh?" asked Lily.

"Never mind," said Regulus. "He fixed it soon afterwards, anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"Who? What? Like, your father?"

"Yeah, _doesn't matter,_" insisted Regulus. "Now are you all going to lead me to your dorm or are we going to wait on this staircase until it decides to start moving and get us all lost again?"

Lily stayed irritatingly close to him after that, keeping him right by her side the rest of the walk to the dorm. Regulus was surprised she didn't offer to carry him.

They made it without incident other than Regulus nearly losing his lunch in the middle of another cruelly animate flight of stairs. When it had settled down, though, he removed his hand from his stomach and gave a weak thumbs up. Minutes after that, he felt perfectly fine again.

"I hear voices," said Peter as they approached a picture of a heavy woman in pink attire. "From down the hallway, it sounds like James!"

Lily listened. "It is!" she exclaimed. "Hi!" she yelled, waving to a fast approaching group of people.

Severus let out a groan and buried his face in his hands. "Lily," he moaned. "Pettigrew."

Regulus let out a small yelp and dove behind Severus. Yes, it was Sirius approaching with two other boys who were undoubtedly Remus and James, but there was also a rather tall, mean looking figure walking behind them, as though they were being herded.

Lily seemed to visibly shrink down, realizing her mistake. "Uh-oh," she murmured. It was far too late to hide now, they'd been spotted. She took a step or two back.

"Trouble," said Peter quietly.

"That is an understatement," said the professor. He was a very tall and foreboding man with dark blonde hair and a very short beard. He had a look on his face which was saying quite clearly that an additional four students out of bed after curfew on the first night was about to push him over the edge.

Regulus had hidden behind Severus in an attempt to keep Sirius from seeing him more so than the teacher. Under normal circumstances he would even had loved an opportunity to try and talk his way out of this. Practice would eventually make him perfect, but at the moment it seemed going unnoticed would be the most prudent choice.

The teacher was young and inexperienced with the idea of authority, or else he was simply _very_ tired because there were no lectures or interrogations. Taking deep breaths he only glared at them, finally growling through clenched teeth, "Okay. Bed. Now. All of you. This is absolutely ridiculous. I expect all seven of you to report to my office tomorrow night for detention, six o'clock." Then he stalked off, muttering, "_First day_ of school, it is way too soon to be having to deal with this shit…"

'Seven of you'…Regulus wondered how big of a problem that was going to cause.

One of the boys from the other group, Lily addressed him as Jamie, seemed quite unfazed by the ordeal. He grinned sheepishly at the lady in the portrait, who shook her head a little. "Audentes Fortuna Iuvat?" he offered. She swung her portrait open, chuckling to herself as she did so.

James clambered through the hole in the wall, and all the others followed him, Regulus going last as he was still debating whether to follow or run and never look back.

Once they were all there, the James boy burst out laughing and nearly fell to the floor.

"_What_ is so funny?" Severus demanded.

"Oh, he's just hyped on the adrenalin of it all," explained Lily.

"Detention my first day of school," said the boy—process of elimination led Regulus to assume he was Remus—nearest to James. He had a thoughtful look on his face. "Of course this would happen to me."

Peter laughed a little, too. "Do you suppose we set some sort of record?" he asked James, who had long ago collapsed at the foot of a small, carpeted staircase.

"Oh god, I hope so!" he gasped. "Did you _see_ the look on that man's face when he saw you guys?"

"Yes, really," said Remus. "From three kids to seven just like that, I bet—wait…" he paused and counted, pointing at each of them. "Seven? How did that happen…? Lemme' see, me, James, Sirius, Lily, Peter, Severus, Sirius…no wait. I've already counted Sirius haven't I? Me, James, _Sirius,_ Lily, Peter, Severus…you are _not _Sirius. Who the hell are you?"

Sirius, who had up until then remained silent, let out and audible groan.

"I am Regulus," Regulus said after a brief pause. Sirius looked helplessly from his brother to Severus, then back again.

"Right," said Remus with extreme slowness. "What, uh, what house are you in? I don't remember you…"

"He doesn't go to school here," offered Lily immediately. Regulus was glad the common area was empty except for the seven of them, the news of him being at Hogwarts seemed to be spreading at an alarming rate already.

James, who was now more in control of himself and had stopped laughing hysterically, looked up at Regulus with interest.

"You look a lot like Sirius," he observed.

"Fascinating!" said Sirius loudly, trying to drown out James. "So _why_ are you here?" the look on his face was murderous.

"Someone stole his watch," continued Lily, one hand on each of Regulus's shoulders. "So he brought candy for them."

That seemed to remind Peter of something. "Oh!" he said excitedly. "James! Regulus got here through the niftiest secret passageway that leads _directly from the candy store in Hogsmeade!_ He showed it to us earlier while we were note taking for the map, and we marked its spot!"

"Show me!" exclaimed James. The whole night seemed validated now if they'd discovered a secret passage, detention or no detention.

"Yeah, he was really helpful!" said Lily, unfolding the papers she had been drawing on all night to show James. She, Peter, Remus, and James huddled together at the foot of the staircase and immediately began comparing notes. Sirius seemed to be in shock, and Severus was rubbing his temple.

"What—" he started, but Sirius shot him a glare with the potential to do physical damage.

Slowly Severus backed away to join the others, leaving Sirius to gape at Regulus.

Regulus offered him a weak smile.

"Do you guys know what this means?" James demanded loudly. "There could be tons more of these kinds of passages. We are going to need to find them all," he added seriously.

"Naturally," said Lily.

"Well, all right," said Remus, yawning. As if on cue, Lily and Peter started yawning, too.

"Okay, well it's been exciting, dudes," said James, standing up. "But I think I'm going to call it a night. Who wants to crash where?"

"I'm staying down here," said Sirius suddenly, and with an icy calmness. "With Regulus. Evans and Snape can have my bed if they want."

Lily, who was leaning her head on Peter's shoulder, opened her eyes briefly and muttered something that sounded like, "okay, thanks man." She turned immediately and walked up the stairs which led, Regulus presumed, up to the boys' dorm rooms. James stifled a yawn and followed her, pulling Peter and Severus along by their hands. Severus seemed a little uncomfortable with this contact, but looked back over his shoulder at Regulus, who avoided his gaze, hoping that doing so would keep the other boy quiet. It seemed blatantly obvious to him that his brother did not want to get into discussion about Regulus with any of his friends.

"Uh, okay then," said Remus, who was the last to go up to bed. "You need a pillow or anything?"

"We're fine," Sirius answered for both of them.

Remus gave a slow nod, like maybe Sirius was even crazier than he'd previously assumed, but eventually he left, tiredness winning out.

This left Regulus and Sirius alone, standing in the commons.

"Oh," said Regulus quietly. "I almost forgot."

Sirius had just enough time to look at Regulus quizzically before the younger boy punched him hard in the face, staggering him a little.

"What the hell?" Sirius demanded, one hand clutching his jaw and the other groping at Regulus, trying to get a hold on him.

Regulus squeaked and ducked away from him. Sirius lunged forward and brought them both crashing to the ground. "What the fucking hell?" he repeated, pinning Regulus's hands together above his head. At this point Regulus was not fighting back at all. Sirius ground his wrists together with one hand and pressed painfully down on his chest with the other.

"Kreacher told me to!" Regulus protested.

"Oh what, so now you take orders from him?" Sirius demanded. When Regulus started to answer, he smacked him in the face. "No, I don't even want to hear it."

Regulus tried to sink back even further into the carpet.

"Okay, I'm sorry, can I get up now?" Regulus asked.

Sirius ground his teeth in agitation. "Fine," he gave Regulus's arms one more painful tug before getting off of him, and pulling them both up off the floor.

Sirius made a move to step away from his brother but before he could Regulus was on him again, this time hugging him.

Sirius growled a little, but this time more playfully. He hugged Regulus back. "What the hell are you doing here, anyway?" he demanded, rubbing up and down Regulus's back.

Regulus said something but it was muffled by Sirius's chest.

Sirius pushed Regulus back a little. "What was that?" he asked.

"I needed to see you. I thought that I didn't, and I made other excuses, but really I think I just wanted to see you."

"Lily said you were looking for your watch."

"Yeah, well, that was one of my excuses."

"_How_ did you get here?"

Regulus tried to wriggle his way closer to Sirius again. "I went through the tunnel from Honeyduke's…"

"Yes," said Sirius, struggling to hold his brother back at arm's length. "But _how_ did you get to Hogsmeade?"

But Regulus refused to tell him. Sirius glared, and started to protest, but Regulus silenced him when he pulled out the box from his pocket.

"This is for you," he said. "I got it at the candy store!"

Sirius opened the box and looked inside. His face lit up. "You bought all this for me?" he asked, bewildered. Sirius had never been one to give gifts spontaneously. Birthdays and Christmases to him were a formal obligation that he hated. Receiving presents on the other hand, was something he enjoyed immensely.

"Yeah," said Regulus, positively beaming. Sirius moved away from him and sat down on the couch in front of the fire, which by that hour of the night was now only an ember.

Regulus climbed onto the sofa next to Sirius, who was rummaging about in the candy box, figuring out what was what. "Thank you for writing to me," he said.

Sirius only nodded. Regulus took the hint quite quickly—much faster than anyone Sirius had been hanging around with lately, for sure—and stopped talking. Instead he leaned into his brother, burying his face in Sirius's side.

"That's my sweater," said Sirius in an offhand voice.

Regulus's nodded against Sirius's shirt. "Andromeda's old sneakers, too. I'm a walking hand-me-down!" he said.

Sirius looked at him with a hint of disdain. "Regs, we have money, you don't have to dress like this."

Regulus sat up a little straighter. "There's no need to spend money on me," he said. There was a look on his face, however, that suggested he would eat, sleep, and shower in high-collared dress robes if Sirius outright told him to.

Sirius looked coldly at Regulus, and the younger boy immediately noted that Sirius's impossibly sensitive temper was starting to change again. He had hoped Sirius would stay happy with him for a little longer. He wanted to stall the inevitable just a little, if he could.

"You don't want them to know who I am," he whispered, giving Sirius the option of pretending not to hear him.

"Oh," said Sirius softly. He was self-centered and spoiled, but he was not yet cruel. "That's nothing to do with you," he answered.

Regulus looked up at him questioningly.

"No, really," Sirius insisted, and he set his box of sweets on the table by where they sat. "You couldn't have known. It's…not because of you, it's my fault, okay? Nobody here can know who you are. It's bad enough that people saw you."

"Oh," said Regulus in a small voice. "Did I really mess things up for you?"

"Regulus," Sirius said, and Regulus immediately stilled. Being called Regulus by Sirius, when they were alone together, never meant anything good. "You know that I love you very much, right?"

Regulus nodded, and Sirius leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "But you can't be here."

"I just—" Regulus started.

Then came the inevitable backhand and the accompanying "_Shush_ yourself," that Sirius had picked up from their parents.

Had it been anyone else even remotely close to his own size, Regulus wouldn't have stood for it, but things as they were, he did nothing but quiet himself, and lower his gaze.

Regulus assumed he must be jeopardizing Sirius's relationship with his new friends.

_New friends_, that thought made Regulus even sadder.

Sirius slapped the underside of Regulus's jaw to get him to look up again."You can stay here with me for a little while if you want, but I want you out of here tonight, and back at Grimmauld, got it?"

Sirius didn't give Regulus enough time to answer before striking his face and demanding that he speak when spoken to, because he was sure that was how it was supposed to be done, after all.

Regulus briefly wondered when people were going to get creative and start hitting him somewhere other than the face.

"Yes," said Regulus. "I'll go." He made to stand up, but Sirius pulled him back down by his collar.

"Whoa, wait," he said. "I told you, you could stay here for a few hours!"

Regulus beamed. He rearranged himself until he was curled up next to Sirius, head on his chest. Sirius shifted a little, uncomfortable.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked.

"Oh," said Regulus, realizing the camera in his pocket was stabbing his brother. "It's a camera," he said, pulling it out. "Like an old polaroid, only I think there's some spell on it to make it this small. Not as small as the one back at Grimmauld, but it's still not normal size. Lily and I found it in a room that…" he trailed off, uncertain.

Sirius shook his head. "You're fine," he mouthed. "I've already made my point."

Regulus smiled again. He set the camera by the candy.

Regulus had to admit he was actually fairly cold, as if someone in the tower had left a window open. Sirius didn't need to be told. Wordlessly, he pulled out his wand and reignited the fire, smiling to himself. Just because he hadn't answered Lupin when he'd asked if Sirius already knew much magic, didn't mean the answer was 'no.'

Regulus slid off the couch and crawled close to the fire. Sirius followed him and they both leaned with their backs against an armchair. Sirius motioned for Regulus to come closer, so the younger boy crawled right into his lap and closed his eyes.

Sirius smiled to himself. He wasn't stupid, he knew that Regulus detested being hugged or touched by just about anyone, although he would often tolerate it for the sake of appearances. Anyone, that was, except Sirius. It gave Sirius an almost sick kind of pleasure to know that not only would Regulus do anything for him, but that he would nearly become an entirely different person, just because he was in Sirius's company.

Sirius liked to have that kind of control.

For a while they sat there, letting the now roaring fire wash over them, and Sirius found himself wishing that Regulus didn't have to leave. It was nice to have him here, but at the same time, he wanted all reminders of home to disappear. He was at school now, not Grimmauld. Regulus needed to stay back with the rest of his suffocating childhood.

That tug, those snaking tendrils of _home_ that Regulus felt enveloping him more completely with each passing year had of course attached themselves to Sirius, too. He could feel them, he was scared of them, and he wanted to cut them off. Well, most of them, some of the pull he felt came from his brother, and although he told himself he needed to get rid of all the vines before he could truly move, a smarter section far in the back of his mind knew that that was a lie, and that Sirius would always need and want his family—especially his brother.

Sirius found himself tightening his grip a little. Regulus squirmed, unable to breath.

Then a crash startled them both out of their minds.

"What was that?" Regulus asked, sitting bolt upright and alert.

"I don't know," admitted Sirius. "It sounded like it came from outside."

"But we're so high up," Regulus observed.

Sirius stood up. "Yeah, just hush," he said. "I'm sure it was nothing. Here, come back to the sofa, away from the—_Regulus!"_

Regulus had stood up as well, only he had run over to the window and was in the process of yanking it open. When it wouldn't budge, he took out Orion's old wand and _made_ it open. Sirius came up behind him and made to grab him, but it was too late, Regulus had leaned out the window to look, the night air unusually cold, even for September.

Sirius couldn't help but look, too, and he nearly fell over the sill when another crash resonated off the side of the tower, very close to them. Regulus let out a strangled yell and looked straight up, towards the roof.

There were people on the top of the tower, two of them. They were struggling to keep their balance on the slanted roof, and why on earth they had flown up there was a complete mystery. They appeared to be fighting, grabbing at one another and sending jets of multi-colored light out of their wands whenever one was brave enough to remove one arm from the death grip they needed to place on the roof to keep from falling.

The two people were shrouded in darkness, but they looked like adults. One of them was really large and clearly had the upper hand. He had a grip on the other. He bashed his head against the stone of the castle over and over again. Regulus let out another yell which a gust of wind fortunately carried away before anyone could hear him. Sirius clapped a hand over his mouth just to be on the safe side, though, and proceeded to drag Regulus back inside the tower.

Regulus managed to break free of his brother's grip and was at the window again in a flash, though. He leaned over the sill, very _very_ far, and Sirius jumped forward, but he wasn't fast enough. The smaller of the two men had finally been knocked off by the larger one. He crashed down the side of the building, blood spilling from his head and neck so fast it was still black. He knocked off bits of rock, shingle, and dust as he slid. He knocked into Regulus as he fell with a very sickening crunch, nearly sending the boy careening over himself. The only thing holding him back was Sirius's grip on his legs, and Regulus was somewhat dangling over the edge.

He could feel hot blood trickling up his neck and face, getting caught in his soft hair, and he wondered how much of it was his from the collision, and how much was from the fallen man.

With a light thud the man hit the ground. He had managed to slow himself down significantly with some kind of wandless spell, but he was still struggling to get up. Most of the photographs Regulus had had in his pocket rained down in a slow spiral, landing on the man, a bright white against the black of the night.

To his horror, Sirius heard the unmistakable sound of the second man clambering around just above them. With a grunt, he yanked Regulus fully back inside, slammed the window shut, locked it, and then dragged his brother to the other side of the room, where he prayed they couldn't be seen.

They stayed frozen there, in the corner of the room, for hours in total silence. Regulus was shaking, and covered in a lot of blood that was not his own. Sirius kneeled in front of him, hugging him hard to his chest, almost painfully, as if he were trying to punish him for leaning so far out that window.

Sirius had no idea who the two men were, nor did he particularly care why they were on the roof of a school, but he was unsettled. The disturbing smell of blood was coming off his brother in droves.

"When you go home," he muttered, "stay there.

"_When you go home, stay there."_

It was all Regulus could do to keep from passing out again, but _god_ did he worry. His eyes were closed, and his face pressed into Sirius's chest, but he was _so sure_ that if he only stood up, took a few steps around the corner of the fireplace, and looked out that window again, he would see a dark and dirty face, belonging to a murderous man perched high on the largest tower and staring straight back at him.

_/signed tenkuroi_


	5. 0 While Lies Accumulate

_**Sirius is an overprotective stalker who breaks his favorite things, and Regulus makes a habit of arguing with himself (it explains a lot, doesn't it?)**_

* * *

><p>"You're wrong," said Regulus, shaking his head. "There's no way anyone with devious intentions could have swooped in so easily past the school's security!"<p>

"I got in," Regulus replied, folding his arms over his chest and glaring. "And I wasn't exactly supposed to, now was I?"

"Yeah, but you aren't _evil,_" Regulus insisted.

Regulus raised an eyebrow.

Regulus continued on, "well you're not. A bad person, I mean. In fact, you admitted yourself that you went there to track your brother down and give him candy for god's sake, that sound villainous to you?"

Regulus contradicted himself. "I went there with the intent to punch my brother in the face, violence! That's a bad intention and I found my way onto campus. I think they were working for the Rising Dark Lord."

"Preposterous," Regulus scoffed. "As if lackey's of that man could get past Dumbledore's defense."

"You seem to have a lot of confidence in that man," said Regulus, raising an eyebrow. "Especially considering how much you hate him."

"I disagree with the man politically," Regulus said coldly. "That doesn't mean I am not at least somewhat wary of his magical prowess. I maintain, that at the moment at least, Dumbledore remains diligent enough to keep the Rising Dark Lord's servants out of his school—"

Kreacher swung open the door to Regulus's bedroom and walked in, carrying a tray with two small cups of gelatin in one hand. "I thought I heard you return, Regulus. Now, what about His Dark Lord?" asked the elf curiously.

The Regulus in the portrait that hung on the wall near the desk voiced loudly, "Regulus is out of his preadolescent mind. He entertains the craziest notion that followers of Lord Voldemort have managed to scale Gryffindor Tower."

"There is no other explanation!" Regulus insisted loudly. "These men were trying to kill each other, they were massively violent!"

"Exactly, not refined at all," insisted Regulus simply. He toyed with the edges of his dress robes. "The Dark Lord values style and high class. He would not employ such buffoons."

"The Dark Lord takes the followers he can get," Regulus scoffed at the painting's naiveté. "And it makes perfect sense that he would send someone to Hogwarts, that's where his main rival is!"

"Dumbledore, the Dark Lord's arch nemesis?" inquired Regulus in disbelief. "I said I had faith in the man's security system, I don't presume to build him up _that _far."

"_Regulus,_" yelled Kreacher suddenly. He set his tray down on the bed. "What _are_ you talking about?"

Regulus seized one of the cups of gelatin from the tray and began to dig the spoon into it idly. "When I was at the school I ran into Sirius," he said slowly.

"I had resigned myself to as much," admitted Kreacher.

"Yes," said Regulus. "Well I was in his common room and we saw two men on the outside of the tower. They were very frightening, and they were fighting. One of them got knocked off, but he didn't die."

"Yes," cut in the Regulus in the painting again. "And Regulus presumes to assume that these two men were obviously working for the Dark Lord. As if there were no other explanation!"

"I am certain I have seen the larger one before!" Regulus yelled to his doppelganger on the wall. "I can't remember where at the moment, but I am certain. It'll come to me if I just don't think about it for a while…"

"Strange men at the school?" asks Kreacher slowly. He took the second cup for himself and started in on it. Gelatin was one of mankind's more successful endeavors. "You're lucky you weren't hurt. Did they see you?"

Regulus sat down on his bed. "For an instant," he admitted. "But there's no way they'd know who I am."

"Are you sure?" asked Kreacher. "You said the one of them looked familiar."

"Yes, but I think it's because I've seen a picture of him somewhere, not because I've ever met him. I'd remember meeting an awful brute like that."

"You wouldn't remember him if he'd bitten you in the ass, every time you're introduced to anyone in the grown up world you're too busy burying your face into your brother's robes."

"Oh, shut up," Regulus snapped, mouth full of green gelatin.

"No table manners, either," insisted Regulus, grimacing. He folded his arms in a very stuck up manner and looked down his nose at the boy on the bed and the house elf. "Mother and Father really failed with you, didn't they? At least Sirius makes his deficiencies known so they can be dealt with accordingly. You just slink around and pretend to be something you're not. You sneak around too much."

"Well I'm expected to be a Slytherin, aren't I?" Regulus groused, trying to ignore the high framed picture on the wall.

"Yes, but you're sneaking around all the wrong people, imbecile! Hiding things from the other Pure Bloods and from your parents. If they knew you kept that filthy thing in your room they'd come in and kill it. Put the stunted thing out of its misery at least, useless little—"

At that Regulus tossed his food to the side and bounded across the room. With a two handed effort, he lifted the portrait and swung it fiercely around so it slammed back into the wall, backwards. His picture self's voice was instantly muffled.

"So it sounds like you had quite the adventure," said Kreacher, finishing the last of his snack. He had long since given up trying to comprehend Regulus's actions. Strangely he was finding that the child's growing multitude of secrets from him didn't bother him so much as it had in the past.

"You sure are taking it calmly," said Regulus in surprise.

Regulus began emptying his pockets, taking out his new, stolen camera and the one photograph that had not fallen out of his pocket hours earlier. He sighed.

"Well I am trying to live to an old age before I get my head cut off," Kreacher responded grimly. "So no use constantly worrying. What's wrong, you seem upset."

"Oh, I'm not really, just regretful."

"So," Kreacher asked. "After all that you came back empty handed, huh?"

"Well some victories do not manifest as physical treasures, Kreacher," said Regulus slyly.

"You came back covered in foreign blood, Regulus," Kreacher deadpanned. He pointed to the bloodstained sweater of Sirius's that Regulus had worn earlier. It was just visible under the lid of the hamper.

"Right, well…" Regulus frowned. He hadn't meant Kreacher to see the sweater, or any of the blood for that matter.

"All that work for nothing. Actually, I'm a little surprised at you, Regulus. I thought you would have gone through with it, but apparently your sneakiness and macabre taste for the suicidal didn't carry you far enough to retrieve your watch."

"Oh?" said Regulus, raising an eyebrow. He pulled back the right sleeve of the new sweater he'd pulled on after discarding Sirius's. "You mean this watch?"

Kreacher's eyes widened. "You got it after all!" he gaped. "He gave it back to you." It seemed hard to believe.

"Don't be crazy," scoffed Regulus. "He's probably just now realizing it's gone…oh how I _wish_ I hadn't lost all those pictures!"

Kreacher stared amazedly at Regulus's newly rescued watch for another moment, then resigned himself to ask, "what pictures?"

"I took some photos while I was over there with this new camera I found and have decided to keep for myself. But I dropped most of them out a window. Well, I suppose I still have this one left." He folded the picture out flat on his lap. It was the one of him and Lily together in the Room of Discarded Items. He supposed he should follow through with his promise and enchant it for her.

"Who is…you know what?" Kreacher threw up his hands. "Never mind."

"Yes, don't even bother asking him," came a voice from the other end of the room.

Regulus groaned. "I like it better when you both stay put in the guest room with Uncle Phineas," he said.

"Mind your manners now, Little Brother," said Sirius coldly. He stood straight backed and proud right next to the painted version of Regulus. Both had marched into the empty frame across from the bed. "You're attitude is a disgrace to your lineage."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "You oughta' see your counterpart, then," he griped. Resigned, he stood up and walked over to them. Simultaneously Regulus reprimanded him for his slipping speech habits and Sirius muttered that that failure of a Black was in no way a reflection of him.

"Yeah, yeah," Regulus seized their frame with both hands.

"Anyway, Kreacher," yelled Regulus from the portrait quickly, sensing that the real Regulus was about to shut them up for a little while. "Like I said don't bother asking Reggikins about any of his new friends, he likes to keep them a secret, you know. Hide them under his bed and whatnot."

"Regulus," Sirius grabbed the painted boy standing next to him by his hair and yanked hard. "You speak to it like it is a person!"

"I'm sorry," was the diminished response. "But someone should know what he's been up to—"

"Shut up, shut up!" yelled Regulus in agitation. He shook the frame violently and the two boys tumbled sideways out of it. "Radiobembas!" he said. "Keep your damn mouths shut."

Kreacher kneeled down on the soft carpet and peered under the bed, but there was nothing there.

* * *

><p>Sirius had thought himself ready to deal with normal society outside the stifling confines of his rigorous upbringing, but nothing could have prepared him for detention that night. He was almost comically confused by the entire ordeal. Detention was supposed to be the detaining of accused persons before sentencing, was it not? He had expected his parents to be notified and physical restraints to be imposed, he had expected the cane…<p>

He received an hour's worth of sitting in the astronomy professor's office writing lines.

How easy was this? The teacher who had caught them, Professor Tektite, even seemed to have calmed greatly. He sat casually on the front of his desk, engaged in small talk with Remus, who had temporarily abandoned his lines. Sirius shook his head in wonder, then leaned back over his paper.

"Well that will probably suffice for writing lines," admitted the Professor, taking the papers from them at last. "I don't suppose doing any more is actually going to prevent this incident from occurring again. Just let it be known that there are good reasons for you all not to be wandering around at night, especially in the present climate, such actions need to be regulated."

"Okay," said James blankly.

Sirius could almost laugh out loud at the surrounding cluelessness that was his classmates. Group of idiots had to be _told_ that they had learned a lesson.

"Sirius," said the teacher. Sirius started and looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"Your paper," said Professor Tektite, holding out his hand.

"Oh," Sirius thrust the parchment at him then immediately lapsed into his signature disdainful silence.

It wasn't until he was stacking the papers and setting them in a desk drawer that the professor blinked suddenly and realized what was missing.

"Where is the other boy?" he asked slowly.

It was enough to make Sirius very uncomfortable. He slumped down very far in his chair and glared at the floor, seething.

"Who?" asked Peter blankly.

"It's really none of your business," commented Lily, who by this point in time had forgone convention and sat criss cross in her chair with a sketchbook in her lap. She focused intently on her work and didn't even look up as she spoke.

"I have no idea who you're talking about," said James conversationally.

"I do," said Remus, who was sitting closest to Sirius. "Unfortunately he's dead so there's not really much point in making him do lines, I'm afraid."

Snape, who was on Sirius's other side, leaned drastically away from him, but did not speak.

"I would like your classmate's name, please," insisted Professor Tektite in a rather condescending tone of voice.

Everyone just kind of shrugged except for Sirius, who buried his head in his hands and wondered bleakly how many times he would need to slam his head into the nearest wall before hemorrhaging to death.

"I wasn't asking," the man repeated.

"Oh good, 'cause we weren't exactly telling."

"Lily…"

"Professor," said Remus politely. "Would you mind if we left now, it's only the start of semester but we do have ample amounts of homework to get to. I was actually hoping to get a headstart on that worksheet you gave us earlier today. Oh hey—maybe really quick before I go, you could remind me the difference between red and blue shifts again? I'm afraid I've forgotten already."

"Blue shift is for moving away and red shift is for moving closer," said Lily, staring intently at Remus. "And the bigger the shift the faster it's moving."

"No, no, you're wrong on that," said Severus quickly, shaking his head.

"What, you think a larger shift means the object is moving slower?" Lily demanded, trying to hide her smile.

"No, he didn't mean that part," Peter threw in helpfully, pleased that he had remembered something from lessons. "He was talking about the red versus blue. I'm sure you've got it backwards. Redshifts are things moving away, blueshifts are things moving closer."

"Oh," said Lily. "So a spectrum shift to the right is going away?"

"Yes," said Severus, nodding. "So long as the red end of the spectrum is on the right. It could be the opposite."

"I thought the red always went on the right and the blue always on the left," observed Remus lightly.

"No, I think maybe they can switch, actually," admitted Lily.

Five sets of eyes shifted to Professor Tektite.

"Professor?" asked James. "How did it all go again?"

Sirius wanted to groan. What a foolish instructor to be tricked by such a simple move. The teacher was smiling again, drawing diagrams on the pages of Lily's conveniently available sketchpad and seemed no longer preoccupied with the whereabouts of Regulus.

And as long as Sirius's mind was on the subject of his brother, he discreetly pulled out his wand and from his other pocket, the tiny marble he'd stolen. Now was as good a time as any to put his paranoia to rest. Regulus had gone home, and he would be _staying there._

Sirius tried to work surreptitiously behind the other's backs, murmuring quiet incantations and performing magic silently when he could. There wasn't much left to do, honestly. All the magical algorithms—for lack of a better description—were in place, it was just a matter of resetting, reprogramming. It shouldn't take too long.

The orb glowed pleasantly for a moment, then was overtaken by shadows and storm clouds that shifted darkly along its surface. Sirius took this to mean something was changing, and left the marble alone in his pocket for a while. The professor released them from their detention with strict instructions to go back to their separate dorms and to remember that red is the color of blood, death, and bad things, and is something that needs to be kept _away,_ and isn't that the easiest way to remember that it's _red_shifts that represent the celestial objects that are fleeing from your point of reference?

"Hey, Sirius," said James as they trekked down from the astronomy department. "What was up with you sleeping in the commons last night with Regulus?"

Sirius's eye twitched involuntarily. Inadvertently, it was Peter's short attention span that saved him, to a degree.

"Yeah, and did you guys hear anything strange last night while you were down there?" he asked, panting from exertion.

"Just as we told you last night, Pettigrew, there were no scary noises, you were dreaming," snapped Snape.

"No, he's right," said James. "I heard a few strange crashes coming from outside."

"Ridiculous," said Snape. "We were in Gryffindor Tower for god's sake, exactly who or what would be up that freaking high?"

James glared at him, and looked to Lily for her opinion.

"Uh…" she looked desperately to Remus who only shrugged. "Well…I sorta' sleep really soundly. I didn't hear anything, but that doesn't mean there _wasn't._"

"Excellent compromise, Lily, now both Severus and James are angry with you for not siding with them," observed Remus. "Sirius, _did_ you see or hear anything? Did Regulus?"

"A few crashes, yeah, probably just the wind blowing junk from the forest against the windows. Regulus slept right through it."

"About that Regulus," continued James. "I've never heard of a kid sneaking onto campus before, he's pretty cool. I can't wait to try out that passageway he found!"

"Yeah," said Lily. "He reminds me a bit of you, Sirius. Not personality-wise of course (he's a sweetheart) but he does look an awful lot like you."

They reached the part where Snape was to continue his march down without them. He waved once to them all and departed, muttering about insane and inbred Gryffindor Purebloods, as if he really didn't care anymore to analyze Sirius's rapidly growing vortex of lies.

"Maybe he's a Pureblood too, my mother says they all sort of look alike because they sleep with their cousins and stuff."

"Gross, Peter," James rolled his eyes. "Audentes Fortuna Iuvat," he unlocked the dorm for them.

"Hey if it's true love, don't diss it," said Lily in an offhand voice. She climbed through the hole in the wall after James.

Remus followed her. "Lily, you worry me on occasion."

"You're okay with incense?" asked Peter in a horrified voice. He scrambled after the other three, having a little bit of difficulty maneuvering his short frame in and through the hole.

"Incest, dude. Incense is those scented sticks Japanese people light on fire before leaving on gravestones. And yes," came Lily's voice from somewhere inside, slightly faded.

"I'm not so sure they leave them _on_ the gravestones, do they?" asked James.

"No, no…look it up…"

Sirius paused just outside the portrait hole and withdrew the small orb from his pocket. It continued to swirl grey and white for a moment, and then it cleared to show none other than Regulus Black gazing forlornly out the window of the library back at Grimmauld. He sat in a high backed chair he had clearly drug from its original place. His arms were folded on the windowsill, his head resting sideways on his hands. Sirius marveled for a moment at how very small and broken his baby brother looked. Pale, and like an invalid child who can't go outside to play, only watch from the sanctity of home. Sirius wrapped the Watcher tightly in his fist, held it close to his heart for an instant, then slipped it back in his pocket and followed his fellow Gryffindors inside.

* * *

><p>One, two, three, four…<p>

"The library again? What are you staring at, Regulus?"

"The tree in the yard, Kreacher."

"And what is so interesting about that ancient tree?"

Five, six, seven…

"It's dying, all its leaves are falling."

"…Yes?"

Eight, nine…

"At this rate there'll be none left by the weekend."

"No, I suppose that there won't be…?"

_/signed tenkuroi_


	6. 0 During the Darkest of Bright Nights

**_The focus of this story really is on Sirius and Regulus, I swear._**

* * *

><p>"God <em>damn <em>it," Regulus gave up, closing the final book of the night. He threw it carelessly across the library floor and watched it skitter into one of the rickety towers of books he'd created, toppling it. Dejected, he curled up into himself and rubbed at his eyes. It had been weeks and still he had found nothing. Maybe his eyes had been playing tricks on him in the dark that night and he hadn't actually seen that man anywhere, but he had been so certain…

If it was a picture he had seen, then it would have to be somewhere amongst the hundreds of books in the library at Grimmauld; he had never read anything else.

Regulus sighed. He needed a break from all this, for lack of a better term, monotony. This was how it had been since he had returned from the school. His parents had been spending an annoyingly great amount of time at home with him lately and their presence was suffocating. Regulus avoided places like the drawing room, kitchen, and the hallway his parents' bedrooms were in because he really didn't want to run into them and remind them of his existence.

At the moment, he was probably the closest he had been to his father in weeks. The man was seated in his study dealing with something financial, and there was Regulus, sitting in the smallest chair in the library not fifteen feet from the study door. Regulus glanced forlornly at the multitude of books he had stacked on (or thrown to) the ground and sighed again. He would have to pick them all up before his father came out, and it was getting late already.

Regulus unfurled his legs and hopped to the ground, figuring he would search some more the next day, or maybe he would sneak back in later at night and continue skimming the books for pictures after his parents were asleep. It was not like there was anything else for him to do.

Regulus forewent manual labor and instead took out his broken wand. One by one he marked the books with a small cut so he would know not to try them again and then he started to make them drift slowly back to their shelves. He was so dejected that even the normally malfunctioning wand didn't act up, almost as if it wasn't worth it at the moment.

Regulus was incredibly frustrated and bored. He had no faith whatsoever in Albus Dumbledore's ability to keep his brother safe, but he wasn't so sure how to go about doing it himself. It was a tribute to his closeness to Sirius that the thought of talking to an adult was not an idea he entertained at all. Getting more information seemed like a good move, but it certainly wasn't going too smoothly, and it didn't help that he had nothing to take his mind off things.

When Sirius had been younger, he had had a private tutor named something-or-other Black. A distant relative and, according to Regulus's well-formed opinion, a truly myopic sot, but he had taught Sirius many useful things. Regulus had tagged along almost every lesson because no one had told him not to; even Sirius had been somewhat grateful, (_"God, you jealous little tag-a-long, you can't leave me alone for ten seconds, can you?...wait, I didn't say don't come, I need someone to be miserable with me. Regulus come back here and go to my lesson with me or I will grab you and drag you." )_

Once Sirius left, however, the man never came back. Regulus hadn't expected him to, Sirius was the important one and Regulus wouldn't dare outshine him.

It did leave Regulus rather bored, though. As interested as he was in identifying the man from the tower and finally putting his mind to rest, it was not something he wanted to be doing twenty-four-seven. In Sirius's absence the house was quickly becoming a void, the feeling was driving him crazy. Regulus swore if he sat still long enough, he would find himself melded to the house and gathering dust. It had been more than a day since he had even spoken, with the exclusion of his expletive a few moments earlier.

Breathing slowly, Regulus continued putting the books back and a small idea squirmed its way into his brain, then began to grow.

_Drop one of the books, _he thought.

Better yet, set it ablaze, make it explode, rip it apart…destroy it.

A book on genealogy hovered before him, shaking slightly. His father would hear the noise, would find him here with his wand…

Regulus so desperately needed something to happen, anything, and it didn't matter what.

The book quivered.

"Regulus?"

Regulus let out a long sigh and slowly lowered his wand. The book coasted gently to its place on a lower shelf. "Yes, Kreacher?" asked Regulus, turning around. His voice cracked and scratched its way up his throat.

"Kreacher has," he shook his head violently. "I have just been with your father, he's almost done and he'll be coming out of his study any second now. So in other words, run off before he sees you, and I'll finish putting everything back."

Regulus blinked. "Yeah," he muttered. "Okay. Thanks, just be sure to mark the books so I don't grab the same ones again."

"You're not still on about that man you saw, are you?" Kreacher raised an eyebrow.

"Well, there's little else to be on about in this house. I'm going to go work on some spells, see you."

Regulus left the library and sauntered into the dark hallway. Everything was always so damn dark in his house, and he hated it. Such a place should be grand and magnificent, but everything looked stunted and small, curled and blind from growing up in the gloomiest home outside an H.P. Lovecraft novel.

Regulus had about had it with the paintings on the walls as well, more specifically that god-awful rendition of him and Sirius that hung in the guest bedroom on one of the upper floors. He found there were grey eyes glued to his back no matter where he went in the house nowadays, and while he had managed to deter them from entering his or Sirius's bedrooms by dismantling all of the picture frames, he could not, unfortunately, do that to the entire house. He wouldn't be surprised if they had been watching him in the library, snickering from the wall behind him while his nose was buried in a book. The thought made him incredibly uncomfortable. The library was one of his last safe havens.

_Do not enter without permission from Regulus Arcturus Black_

I give myself permission, Regulus thought sarcastically, and he pushed open his bedroom door. From the small shelf on the nightstand he removed an incredibly heavy book on French Wizarding history. He flipped through the creaking pages until one fell open heavily from the rest. Regulus smiled and removed the two sandwiching pieces of paper, carefully peeling them apart. Inside was the pressed, dried leaf. He laid it carefully on his bed then resumed sifting through the book's pages until he found the second leaf.

The second leaf had faired just as well as the first. Regulus had been wary, of course, that his shoddy spellwork would not have held strong. The leaves had been dead and dry when he'd gathered them and before pressing them he'd had to rejuvenate them, then dry them again, and finally place them in the book. It appeared to have all worked nicely, though, and the leaves sat sturdy and whole next to his pillow.

Maybe there were things to do at Grimmauld Place, after all.

Regulus dove under his bed and met a pair of glowing green eyes. Gently he pushed them to the side and reached for the glass panes and picture frames further back. Straightening up, he set them out on the bed and went about matting his two leaves. He used magic whenever he thought he could get away with it, carefully succeeding in not setting the leaves on fire. The matting didn't fare so well, though, and he had to replace the green one twice. He hummed to himself in time with the rustling beneath his bed.

An hour or two later, he was done. The frames were small, no bigger than a book, and inside each one was a perfectly preserved tree leaf, all set and ready to last forever. Regulus carefully set them on the wall, wand shaking a little, praying for a lack of fiery explosions.

"There," he whispered, his voice still sounding strange from disuse. "Perfect."

Regulus's eyes drifted to his closet door, closed so tightly and sealed to exclude all possibility of light. He glanced at his newly retrieved watch. Enough time had passed. Feeling extraordinarily productive for a day that had started out so dismally, Regulus threw himself at the wall next to his door and flipped off all the lights. In the complete darkness, he felt his way to the closet, opened it, and stepped inside.

"Here we go," he muttered. "Rubrum lux." Mentally, he crossed his fingers.

Nothing happened for a moment. Regulus was about to try again when the entire wand began to glow an eerie red, safe for photographs, but weirdly hot on his hand.

Regulus sighed. "Once again," he grimaced. "Close enough."

Waving his wand slowly like a beacon, he wandered his way to the tray of solution in the corner. Swimming around on the bottom was his one remaining picture from his escapade up at the school. He took it out and ran it through his squeegee. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Seems done."

He shook his wand viciously like there was a spider on the end and eventually got it to stop glowing, and just in time because his hand had been starting to feel uncomfortably heated.

He stumbled out into his bedroom and turned the lights back on. Blinking painfully for a minute, he then shook his head and examined his re-developed photograph.

It had worked perfectly. Lily and Regulus stared up at him shyly, arms around one another. Regulus gave a strange smile at his miniaturized self. "It's okay to be a little more flamboyant than I usually would be," Regulus told himself seriously. "You're in a photograph for a good acquaintance of mine and she'd really prefer that."

Regulus looked carefully from side to side, as though searching for lurking, disapproving relatives, but then obliged and waved, grinning madly.

"Okay then," said Regulus. Without thinking he slipped the photo in his pocket and began fumbling around his neck for his portkey.

On a split second decision, he called softly, "Here, Dante," unsure if it would even work. To his immense pleasure, the little creature scurried chipperly out from under his bed, as though it had been waiting for days to hear those words.

With a purring sound, it leapt at Regulus's chest. Regulus opened his jacket and settled his little friend inside. With a deep breath he connected his bottle cap and was gone.

* * *

><p>At least Kreacher's mistake was consistent. Inside the village again, Regulus strolled calmly down the street. It was a bright night with a moon that must be somewhere around full, but still few people were out. As he walked up to Honeyduke's, Dante stuck his nose out of Regulus's jacket, resting on top of his zipper pull, and sniffed the night air eagerly.<p>

Regulus peered in through the glass pane on the door, not really wanting to break in but resigning himself to it if he absolutely had to.

He noticed the girl from last time meandering around a back shelf taking inventory. Grinning, Regulus knocked lightly on the door. She turned around sharply, and peered through her bangs in his general direction. Aggravated, she swatted curly hair from her round face and walked to the window to get a better look at what had made the startling noise. When she saw Regulus outside the door, her face lit up.

"Hey," she said, unlocking and opening the shop's door. "It's Thief Garrett!"

The girl's voice resonated in Regulus's skull for a few seconds before registering in his brain; he really had been living in silence for too long. Regulus offered her a half smile.

"My parents are out tonight so come on in!"

"Am I bothering you?"

"No," she insisted. "We're closed and I was just taking stock inventory, so it's no trouble. What are you up to, sneaking around so late at night? It's kind of dangerous, you know," she added, but there was a lighthearted tone to her voice.

"Just looking for safe passage back to the school, actually," Regulus admitted cautiously, as the shop girl pulled him by the arms up to the counter. Idly she leaned back against it, and then an enormous grin broke out on her face.

She laughed. "You want to use the tunnel? The one from the basement?"

Regulus nodded. "You know it's there, then?"

The girl snorted into her hand. "Of course I do!" she exclaimed. "I'm the one who made it, silly."

Regulus leaned forward with interest. "Really?" he asked, mildly surprised.

"Okay, so it might have been a collaborative effort, but believe me, I did some of the actual infrastructuring. It was sort of a project between me and my aunt; she was the owner of this shop originally, and when I was at school I used to get really homesick, at least the first few years. So we constructed a way for me to sneak in and visit her. My parents lived on the coast at that time, so she was my nearest relative."

"Pretty near, really," said Regulus, nodding. Slowly, he met her eyes.

The girl gave a saddened half-shrug. "She died a few years ago," she admitted. "So Mom and Dad took over and we all live here now. It's nice to live someplace where I have so many good memories. I haven't told either of my parents about that tunnel, though. Honestly I never thought anyone would ever use it again…"

"I am sad for you loss," Regulus intoned awkwardly. Spending his entire life in a state of existence where the death of an aunt or uncle was usually a cause for celebration left him a little out of the water on topics like this. "But I did happen upon your tunnel…on accident, I swear, and I was hoping maybe you might allow me to use it just once more."

The girl hopped forward from the counter and clapped her hands together. "Use it as often as you like," she offered. "That's what it's for! Just try not to get caught by my parents. I could always lie and say I have no clue how such a passage was constructed or when…but I suppose my and my aunt's magical signatures would be all over that place. They'd know in an instant I built it," she sighed. "And my mother never was so fun-loving as her sister, you know."

Wary of debts, Regulus felt he needed to offer her something in return for this enormous favor, but could think of little. Finally he settled on personal information, something he rarely gave away of his own free will.

"My name is Regulus Arcturus Black," he said proudly, and with slight disbelief that he was actually telling her this. "And actually I am not yet a student at the school. I have been sneaking in to see…well I have been sneaking in for various reasons. Tonight I have a gift for a friend of mine. It's a photograph she wanted me to magick for her, and I wanted to deliver it in person. Can't rely too much on fretful post owls." _I needed desperately to get out of my house to break that god awful monotony. I needed to be within walking distance of my brother, even if I can't see him._

"Regulus. That's really a mouthful, especially for someone so small," she said, her eyes having widened briefly at Regulus's admission, as though she had some grasp of what it cost him to say it. "I think I'll just keep calling you Garrett."

Regulus raised an eyebrow and she shrugged in defeat. "Just trust me, it makes sense. Anyway," she reached out her hand to formally shake his, like when they had first met. "Regulus, my little Thief Garrett, it's nice to see you again and really know your agenda. My name hasn't changed of course," she winked and looked at him expectantly.

Hand still being shaken up and down, Regulus panicked. "Yes, thank you…" how was he going to save face on this one? "…Shop…girl."

The girl dropped his hand and clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she was having trouble remaining standing. "Oh, okay," she wheezed. When she straightened back up, she actually had to brush tears from her eyes. "It's only fair, I suppose. Garrett and Shop it is, then. Here, did you want something else to take to you friend? It can be an early…or late birthday present."

Shop pulled out a box of assorted fancy candies from beneath the counter and held them out to Regulus. Still stinging red with embarrassment, he took them. "Thank you very much," he mumbled.

"No problem," said Shop. "Are you going to be coming back through tonight?"

"It won't be necessary," said Regulus. "I have means of transportation home from the castle, I just cannot, unfortunately use those same means to get inside the grounds."

"Understandable," Shop gave Regulus a hug that he did not return because she still wasn't Sirius. No amount of conversation and camaraderie would ever change that. "Have fun," she said, giving him a little push towards the back door. Regulus could feel Dante trembling against his chest, still terrified and overexerted from remaining so still and hidden in the front of Regulus's bulky jacket.

Silently, he left, and just like that he was for the second time wandering the deserted nighttime corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He made his way shakily to Gryffindor tower via an incredibly roundabout route. He could remember quite well the way he had traveled with Lily and the others, but he had to follow that path exactly to avoid getting lost which meant going down a lot of hallways, in and out of quite a few classrooms, and past the room full of hidden objects before finally standing before the fat woman who guarded the sleeping Gryffindors.

"And just what do you think you're doing here?" asked the Fat Lady. She glared down at Regulus condescendingly from her lofty position. "You have the audacity to just waltz back in to this school unsupervised and in the middle of the night for a second time? Yes, I recognize you, young man, and you are certainly not one of my children. Not a student at all, for that matter. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Fortune favors the bold," Regulus deadpanned.

The woman's eyes lit up. "Oh," she exclaimed. "A smart one. Well, I suppose I should let you in, then. Maybe you'll rub off on the others…" and she swung forward with a sigh and shake of her head.

Regulus slinked into the commons area where there were only several students still awake. They curled in armchairs in front of the fire or lounged about on the rugs. One or two glanced briefly at him, and it was a tribute to the wonderful mentorship of the older Gryffindor students that none of them realized he wasn't just one of the younger children.

Regulus approached the staircase the others had not gone up the night he had been here before, meaning it must be the girls'. He stood carefully on the first step; nothing happened. He moved up several stairs, still nothing. A short ways later, however, he felt the steps melt together beneath his feet and he was forced to surf back to the bottom of the staircase.

He rolled his eyes. Wonderful.

"Alright, Dante," he whispered. "Now's your time to shine. Just how much do you like me?" From inside his jacket he pulled out the very small, furry creature. He set him at the bottom of the slide. "I need the girl in this photo," he put the picture in front of Dante's nose. He was rewarded with a sneeze.

"Okay, never mind, that's a ridiculous idea, you wouldn't know to fetch her for me, um…" Regulus thought for a moment, then took out his wand and ever so carefully affixed the picture and the small candy box to Dante's back. Then he tossed the little thing halfway up the staircase. With a slight scramble, Dante surged his way upwards on instinct and disappeared around the corner at the top. Regulus waited.

He was rewarded. Within minutes, Lily came rushing down the stairs, which had reformed during the waiting period, Dante held snugly under one arm.

"Regulus!" she said happily. "You're here again!"

Regulus nodded curtly. Now that he was here, he didn't really have anything to say.

Fortunately, Lily saved him. "Come on, let's go!" she whispered. She seized him by the forearm and dragged him out of the commons. Together they raced down the corridors, Regulus in his brother's too-big jacket with Dante once again safely secured in the inside pocket and Lily in the bright blue shorts and tank top in which she had been sleeping. Occasionally they skidded to a stop before rounding a corner to listen for prowling teachers.

Lily led him to the castle's main door.

"We can just walk out of it?" questioned Regulus. He had to crane his neck to see where the door connected with the ceiling.

Lily pushed him forward. "Yes," she said. "Now come on, let's go out on the grounds, you didn't get to see any of the outside when you were here last!"

"Won't you be cold?"

"I'm fine."

The grass was clinging desperately to its summer hue, refusing to turn completely brittle and die. It was still long and soft as the two of them journeyed across it under the stage light of a moon. In the near distance, Regulus could make out the Quidditch stadium and beyond that, a line of trees—the forest.

"Well the grounds are certainly capacious," Regulus commented while Lily dragged him along by the hand.

Lily paused. "Uh…yes?"

Regulus started, "Uh, I mean they're big…like, really big."

Lily smiled. "Let's go to the forest!" She continued to drag him away.

"Students aren't allowed there," Regulus said in a flat voice. Actually he didn't know that, but it seemed like the logical thing to assume.

"You're not a student," Lily laughed.

The moon had slunk behind a thick cloud. Regulus's eyes widened as they neared the woods. The area confined within the towering trees seemed even darker than the rest of the grounds.

"This is an incautious…_disastrous _idea!" Regulus insisted. He dug his heels into the ground, skewing leaves.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What're you so concerned about?" she asked, turning to face him, the forest looming behind her. "I've been here before. Beginning of term, Severus and I went exploring in here. Okay, so it was daylight still then, but whatever. And I've come here several times since then, it's not really a big deal."

Regulus shook his head. "No, we can't go in there, it's…" but then he had an idea. "Okay, Lily, you're right. We can go in the forest, but just…be careful."

Lily gave a small grin. "Regulus, you're not afraid of the dark are you?"

Regulus glared. It had been nearly a year since he'd had to rack his brains for an excuse to crawl into Sirius's bed with him and remain there until dawn, a record of which he was quite proud.

"No," said Regulus stubbornly. "I just have reason to believe that the forest is not a particularly safe place right now, but so long as we're careful…"

"Right, sure," said Lily. "Well, I'll be right here with you so there's no reason to be scared. Come on."

Regulus rolled his eyes but followed her into the trees. It was a slim chance, he knew, but it was worth taking.

To Regulus's disappointment, Lily didn't seem interested in traveling further within the woods, but instead kept to the outermost layer, walking parallel to the grounds where the trees were still sparse and sporting skinny trunks. Regulus did his best to inconspicuously lead her deeper into the darkness while at the same time trying to shush her persistent narrative without seeming rude.

Inside his jacket, Dante trembled.

Lily placed a hand gently on Regulus's chest as they paused near a clearing. "Who's your little friend, by the way?" she asked. "He's a really odd-looking cat. Really cute, of course, but just not quite right."

"Yes," said Regulus, placing his hand over top of hers. "His name is Dante. I brought him with me tonight because I didn't want to leave him alone in the house with my parents again. It felt like pushing my luck; they don't know that I have him, you see."

"Oh."

"Yes," Regulus murmured. They trailed off into silence after that. Lily had long since run out of exciting news to relate to him about the school and it's campus, as if spending a month or so there had finally begun the process of her realizing that she was attending a school, and that school, by its very nature, was less interesting than a political conference on trade negotiations.

"Did you hear something?" asked Lily, cocking her head.

"No," said Regulus, but he dropped his voice to an eager whisper all the same.

"Maybe there's some sort of animal in the clearing," said Lily, sauntering forward as silently as she could, excitement evident in her eyes. They were quite deep into the forest by this point, and Regulus was torn between the desire to see what he'd been halfway searching for, and the completely rational fear of actually succeeding.

"Shh," Regulus warned. He followed her, stepping deftly over dried leaves and soft brush. They both placed themselves warily behind a large tree and, tightly digging their nails into the bark to take hold, leaned around opposite sides of the trunk to stare into the clearing with wide eyes. Something in the darkness was moving, two somethings actually, and they were animals, yes, but more animals of the homo sapien variety than deer or centaurs.

"Who are—" Lily began, but Regulus reached one hand around her wrist to silence her. She took the hint.

Regulus's heart was pounding madly in his chest and he seemed to suddenly need to blink a lot. Desperately he tried to squint through the darkness to get a better look at the larger of the two figures.

"Shit, turn on some fucking light," the skinnier humanoid shadow complained.

"Quit whining," the second replied, but he obliged and lit the end of a very short wand. It sent out a circle of light just large enough in diameter to strike Lily and Regulus. Blinking madly, they both released their grip on the trunk and shuffled back a few feet.

The two men turned their heads. Regulus and Lily remained perfectly still. They had managed to step out of sight behind the tree, but that meant they couldn't see the men anymore either, couldn't tell if they were making towards them or not. Dante's nails were digging painfully through Regulus's shirt, drawing blood. He gasped silently and tried not to lose his balance. He swiveled his eyes to look at Lily. She had an expression of complete horror on her face.

When the two resumed their talking, Regulus allowed himself to breathe semi-normally again.

"You know I'm right," the voice was low, grating. "We need to change our plan. We've got the wards weak points marked, there is nothing stopping us."

"We go in the summer, when the students and most of the teachers are gone. I'm not in this to get arrested."

"A lot of good that will do when it's a student who now has the motherfucking thing! Do you really want to return empty-handed?"

"Do you really want to faceplant off a building again?"

Silence resumed. Lily was mouthing frantically at Regulus but he couldn't tell what she was trying to say. Finally his mind snapped back into focus and he regained use of his limbs.

He waved frantically, mouthing _time to go._

Lily nodded and they started to dart away as quietly as they could, hearts pounding in their throats. Regulus glanced behind them so frequently that he nearly tripped several times. As they turned a corner, the light from the clearing disappeared and they were once again in complete darkness, forcing them to slow down and try to give their eyes time to adjust back.

"Are they following us?" Lily panted. Trembling head to foot, she tugged Regulus sharply to the right; they needed to head out of the forest, not deeper inside.

"I don't think so?" Regulus's voice was unusually high and he couldn't seem to get it to go back down.

Stealth forgotten, they crashed through the brush, somehow that much more desperate now that the thin outline of the school grounds was in distant sight.

In fact, even once out of the forest they didn't stop running. Regulus could no longer feel his legs and he was sweating profusely in stark contrast to the dryness of his throat and eyes.

About thirty feet down the castle wall away from the door, they lost it and finally collapsed against the stone, gasping. Lily immediately wrapped her knees up to her chest. Regulus ripped open his jacket and painfully yanked Dante off of himself. Beads of sweat ran into the small claw wounds and stung badly.

"Ah," he whimpered a little, and set Dante on the ground, who immediately tried his best to attach himself back to Regulus again.

For a while they only breathed. Then Lily composed herself. "Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?" Regulus asked her.

"Who were those guys in the forest?"

Regulus leaned his head back against the castle's wall. "What makes you think I know them?"

"Well you must have known they were there, that's why you were so reluctant to go into the Forbidden Forest; although I have no idea what made you change your mind."

Regulus bit his lip. "Curiosity got the best of me, I suppose. It's something that's been happening to me a lot lately, especially since Sir—" he caught himself. "Especially since, well…lately. I thought catching another glimpse of them might help jar my memory, and it worked, but I didn't realize it would be so frightening."

He looked to Lily. The large moon reappeared from out the cloud cover and reflected eerily back at him off her eyes and wristwatch.

"Anytime you'd like to explain," she said.

Regulus arranged himself a little more comfortably. He stretched out his legs, allowing Dante to jump into his lap, and stared wistfully up at the stars.

"Did your friend Sirius tell you about the men we saw on the tower the night we slept in the common room?"

"So something did make that noise," Lily observed. "No, he didn't. Those men were scaling the Gryffindor Tower?"

"Yes, I'm not sure why, really, but whatever possessed them to climb on the roof, they were all-out brawling, and I saw them through the window. They fell to the ground and ran into the forest. I was concerned because I think they work for Voldemort, stationed for some reason in the forest and able to get in and out of the castle's protective barriers, at least the outer ones that bar only the grounds. I didn't know if they could get inside the actual building or not. When I caught that glimpse of them, one seemed extremely familiar."

"Who is Voldemort?" asked Lily.

Regulus explained as best he could. "A bit of a political idealist," he admitted. "Wants to change the paradigm in which we live, but a lot of people think he's a bit too power-hungry. Also no one's really very certain of his background, where he came from. He's a bit of a shady character, actually, and his supporters are notoriously anonymous and violent. When you get the chance, start sifting through the Daily Prophet. You'll see several dozen references to him a day, mostly under the pseudonym 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. He's done some weird shit lately, and people are starting to notice him."

"Who was the man you recognized?"

"The larger of the two men is Fenrir Greyback," said Regulus evenly. "He skulks around the Underworld mostly, but he's the Dark Lord's fear card. He's a werewolf, see, and Voldemort sics him on people and their children as I understand. My parents have spoken of him several times during social events, and there's short bio on him in a book at my house, I don't recall the exact title, something on registered human-like creatures. You know, like a census almost on vampires and werewolves and such…"

"You went looking for a terrorist werewolf in the middle of the night _on purpose?_" Lily asked in amazement.

"Well I didn't know it was him!" Regulus insisted. "Besides, we're all right."

Lily looked shakily up at the moon.

"I know what you're thinking," Regulus intoned. "The moon was full_ last_ night."

"What do you think they're after that could be here at the school?" Lily wondered.

"Whatever it is, sounds like they aim to take it when everyone is gone, at least," Regulus offered weakly. "Good to know their goal is stealth."

"Should we tell a teacher? Will anyone even believe us?"

Regulus stood up stiffly. Dante frantically clawed his way up Regulus's leg and onto his shoulder. "_You_ can," said Regulus. "But to save you the trouble: you'll be suspended when they find out you've snuck out several times, you'll have to mention me and they don't know who I am so you'll sound even crazier, and _no_ they won't believe you. Even if they did they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I have little faith even in Dumbledore when it comes to these matters. He is notoriously blind."

"What's your proposition, then?" Lily demanded, standing up as well.

Regulus took a few deep breaths. "Step back and think for a little while. Find out what it is they're after if we can. Learning a little more about Greyback wouldn't hurt. This may require me to actually speak to some of my relatives…"

"They sound like wonderful people," Lily rolled her eyes. Now that the danger had mostly passed, she was starting to feel a second rush of adrenaline, although this time from excitement rather than fear. "This could be fun," she continued. "Like an investigation. I'll talk to James and the others in a few days when Remus comes back from the infirmary, probably best to let them all know at once."

"How's your map coming?" Regulus asked, smiling.

"Slow as hell, but whatever," Lily started to walk towards the castle door. "You okay to get back home or did you need to stay here again?"

"I'm fine," Regulus nodded. "Be sure to make certain that Sirius…and all of the others…know not to go looking for them just because we did. I don't want him—them to get hurt."

"Will do," Lily tugged at the door. "Oh, and Regulus?" she asked, turning back to him briefly before stepping inside.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the picture."

_/signed tenkuroi_


	7. 0 On Family and Fortunes

_**I'm sure all well-respected, young aristocrats carry small mammals in their pockets. **_

_**Warning: Spanish written by a non-native speaker. Pathetic translations located at the end of the chapter.**_

* * *

><p>Rain: a trademark of London. Regulus hissed and pulled his hood up. Dante shivered against his side; small, stunted, and curled up in a little ball. Regulus sneaked a hand into his pocket to try and calm his shaking friend.<p>

The rain wasn't coming down terribly hard, but there was a drastic wind-chill and a definite bleakness to the cloudy sky. While he attempted to slosh through the streets with some semblance of dignity, Regulus made multiple vows to himself that, second in line to the British branch of the Black Family or not, he was going to move somewhere warm the instant he graduated. He'd been reading a little on the subject of geography and, at the moment, the United States' island of Hawaii was looking particularly appealing.

"You know," Regulus whispered over the sound of the pattering raindrops. "Surfing was originally reserved for Hawaiian royalty, Dante. Sounds like just my kind of thing!"

Dante licked his hand, and Regulus smiled.

"Almost there," he insisted as they neared the outside entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. They had been walking for quite a while. Well, Regulus had been walking, what Dante had been doing was more akin to riding.

Regulus pushed open the door to the pub, and marched boldly inside. He nearly stumbled, it was so dark.

"Jesus," he murmured with disdain. "Turn on some lights, you nocturnal beasts."

Wizards were hunkered over at the bar, their backs to Regulus. Several people were seated around tables or the fireplace. Regulus scanned the floor for signs of who he was looking for.

"Can I help you, young sir?" asked the bartender. He was a casual man, walking around the counter and approaching Regulus with an almost lecherous grin. Regulus leaned away.

"Perhaps," he consented. "I am meeting with someone here, a cousin of mine. If you could inform me if he is here yet—"

The bartender tugged down Regulus's hood. Admittedly, Regulus should have removed it as soon as stepping indoors, but still, the _audacity _of the man.

"What's your name?" the man asked. Regulus blinked, affronted.

"I am Regulus," he said. "Regulus _Black._"

"Who?" came the response.

"I am Walburga and Orion Black's youngest son," said Regulus through gritted teeth.

"Oh!" exclaimed the bartender. "I didn't know they had another child other than young Sirius." He laughed, a high-pitched, annoying sound. Propriety and force of habit alone kept Regulus's jaw from connecting with the floor.

"Yes," he said very slowly. "Well I assure you that they do, amusing, isn't it? Now—"

A tap on his left shoulder stopped him mid-sentence. He turned around in a very careful and controlled manner. He met a grinning face _extremely _close to his own.

"Regulus," this new man said. "I thought I recognized that haughty, disdainful little voice of yours. Heard it enough times from dearest cousins Walburga and Orion." He pretended to notice the bartender. "Are you letting this man bother you? Losing face for our family, you are. Come on, _vamonos._ I'll treat you to a drink."

He wrapped an arm tightly around Regulus's shoulders and steered him out of the Leaky Cauldron and back into the rainy London streets. The rain was seriously abating, and a double rainbow tentatively graced a clear patch in the sky.

Standing frozen on the street, snugly attached to his cousin, Regulus intoned in a flat voice, "I thought we chose the pub as a meeting place because we intended to stay there and talk, León."

León laughed at Regulus's stoic face. "Nah, just needed someplace you could find on your own. Vamos a ir a un bar que sirva cerveza a redrojos como tú."

Regulus rolled his eyes. Still somewhere in the back of his mind, he was reminded of Sirius's recklessness and he smiled.

"All right, León, Guíame."

León laughed loudly. "Estamos en tu ciudad!" he exclaimed, but nonetheless he placed a hand at the small of Regulus's back and led him down the muggle street, flashing his flirtatious smile at everyone they passed. Regulus's back prickled uncomfortably, but he put up with León's touchy-feely nature as it was in his best interest at the moment. Not to mention that this man (young, around twenty-two if Regulus was remembering correctly) with his eyes just short of navy blue, his high-arching eyebrows and hair so dark a black it shone blue in the right light, was startlingly reminiscent of Sirius Black himself. If Regulus just barely squinted, the skin tone would lighten and the waves in his hair disappeared, leaving behind a taller, slightly exotic version of his brother.

"Ah, here," said León smoothly. They stopped in front of a muggle establishment with a buzzing neon sign. Regulus frowned. It looked awfully far off the beaten track.

"Er…_primo,_" Regulus started, but León ignored him and dragged him through the door.

"We'll be fine. Thank gods you are wearing normal clothing." In the sudden darkness that was the inside of the bar coupled with the contrasting bright lights flashing from various walls and areas of ceiling space, it was difficult to tell, but León appeared to be assessing Regulus's blue jeans and jacket with faint approval.

Regulus was not amused. "León," he began again. "Es muy ruidoso."

León winked. "And thus we're harder to overhear." He disappeared to the counter for drinks and Regulus, recognizing defeat, slinked off to a booth far in the corner of the building, and as distant from the seizure-inducing dance floor as was possible. He sat there, tapping his fingers on the table and waiting for his cousin to return.

León was a very distant relative of Regulus's, and a bit of a wildcard at that. He was something of a second cousin to Regulus's mother and a third cousin several times removed to Regulus's father. Most of his ancestry seemed to be attempting to culminate in an entirely new ethnicity. The official family tree traced León safely back to Spain, and placed him stably in the middle of the Spanish branch of the Black Family, but Regulus knew better. He had done his research. There were bits and pieces of Colombian and Egyptian blood in his veins as well. Regulus had spoken to him very few times before.

"Regulus," Regulus jarred himself out of his thoughts at the sound of León's voice. "Here, you go."

"Thanks," Regulus accepted the glass and took a small sip of the bubbly red liquid inside. It immediately set his throat buzzing. He coughed a little before straightening up and removing his jacket. Dante cautiously clawed his way out of the pocket and placed himself securely on Regulus's lap, wary of the loud noises.

"Gatito…muy lindo."

"Yeah," Regulus absent mindedly stroked Dante between the ears. Dante tried to purr, but it came out as more of a strangled growl. Grimacing, Regulus folded his hands on the table.

Sitting across from him, León leaned forward, smirking. "So, dearest baby cousin," he said in his thickest accent. Regulus rolled his eyes. "I come all the way to Great Britain of my own accord, just for some R and R in your _wonderful _weather, and I find myself bombarded with letters from you, just _begging _to see me."

"I overheard from Father that you were in the country, I thought it was the perfect time to ask if we could meet face to face. Conversations by mail take so incredibly long," he paused. "And it was a humbled request. I most certainly did not _beg _you for anything. I would never."

"Not how I remember it, Little One." He clapped his hands together dramatically. "Ah, León, _¡te lo suplico!"_

Regulus glared hard at his cousin. León pouted.

"I bet you would beg your _brother_ if you needed help from him. I'm sure _he_ never gets this cold, distant behavior of yours."

Regulus took another sip of his drink. It fizzed as he set it back down. "All right," he said. "I promise to be more loving with you from now on. After all, it's not like you can blame me for how I am. _You_ get to live it up in Spain with the sane half of the family. You're always vacationing places and doing exciting things. I'm breaking all natural laws right now just by leaving my parents' house."

"Ah," León downed a good portion of his drink. "But do your parents drag you to church every other day? España es muy religiosa. No he podido escapar de los delirios."

Regulus consented. "Fine. You win, your parents are crazier. Now wipe that smirk off your face, we have business to get down to."

León's eyes began to drift out to the dance floor.

"¡León!" Regulus snapped. "¡Présteme atención!"

"Right," León looked back to him. He swirled his drink. "Am I correct to assume that your wanting to meet up with me has nothing to do with how much you love and adore me?"

"Well if you're going to put it like that…" Regulus rolled his eyes. Dante shifted in his lap. Curiously, Regulus held his glass in front of Dante's nose and tipped it slightly.

"When you're done intoxicating your cat…thing, I'll make you a deal."

Regulus looked up. "Deal?" he inquired.

"Sure, first tell me what it is you want to know, because I know you want something. You don't talk to people unless there's something in it for you."

"How do you think you know me so well? We're as good as strangers!" demanded Regulus fiercely. He set his drink back on the counter and Dante busied himself licking his nose to make sure he got all the alcohol that had splashed onto it.

"I'm a wizarding ethnologist with a particular interest in genealogy, Regulus, it's what I do. There isn't an important pureblood family in any hemisphere on this earth that I can't tell you about."

Regulus smirked. It had been wise of him to wait after all. Since his and Lily's debacle in the Forbidden Forest it had taken all his willpower to avoid latching himself onto each and every nearby relative he could get a hold of. Someone surely would be able to provide him with the necessary information about Voldemort, his followers, and Greyback specifically, but he had waited. He didn't want to draw attention to himself and if he was going to do this, he was damn well going to do it all the way, find somebody who _knew_ what they were talking about.

"Okay, I am considering accepting your deal…now what's the other half of it?" Regulus inquired.

"Simple really," his cousin responded. "My name's not attached. At all. Your parents never get to know I brought you here," he gestured to the bar in general. "And no one in the family gets to know we spoke. In fact, I'd appreciate it if you keep any information I give you a complete secret from them, as it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to find the correlation between my visiting Britain and your sudden onset of illicit knowledge."

Dante slipped down from the booth and began to slink out onto the dance floor.

"Seems perfectly reasonable," said Regulus mildly. "Come the next time we meet in public it will be as if I hardly recognize you."

"¡Excelente!"

Regulus stared, unsmiling, for a moment, then after cautiously double checking that they were the last things on anyone's mind at the moment, he asked of León, "I would like to talk about the Rising Dark Lord…and specifically some of his party members."

León cocked his head. "¿El Señor Tenebroso y sus Mortífagos?"

"Yeah."

León leaned forward in concern, his brow knitted. "All right, Regulus. Now I'm going to ask you why you would wish to discuss such a topic."

Regulus lifted his drink to his lips and smirked softly from behind the frosted glass. "Just a passing interest of mine, really," he murmured, but he knew León was never going to buy that. Idly, he continued, "It's just frustrating is all. Nobody will talk about any of it, especially not to anyone under the age of thirty. I think I deserve to understand the current political climate. All of the adults gather and speak in their little code words and I constantly feel like I'm on the outside of a massive inside joke."

León still looked a little skeptical.

"León," Regulus said, looking down. "I—I just wanna' know what's going on!"

He pretended to start when León grabbed his wrist gently with two fingers and looked up at him with his eyes as wide as possible.

"Yes, yes, okay you have a point. But Regulus, people don't talk about it all for a reason. They think if they just ignore the things they don't understand, or pretend the bad things never happened, that that will somehow keep them safe. You're right; information should be shared more freely."

Regulus could tell León was still uncomfortable with the topic, though. "We'll work our way up to Voldemort, okay, cousin," he offered. "Let's start with a man named Fenrir Greyback."

León narrowed his eyes and his face turned very thoughtful. "Ah," he said, and Regulus could tell his was in his element. "Mr. Greyback is a really interesting figure. Um, I'm assuming you know the basics. He's a werewolf, he mostly bites children, and he is loosely associated with the Dark Lord, yes. Status as things are, I don't think he's a full party member, more of a freelance worker. Voldemort isn't the only person he hires out to, you know."

Regulus leaned forward as far as he could and dropped his voice to a whisper. "So… he's not loyal to Voldemort's cause?"

León snorted lightly and hung his head for an instant. "No," he said, looking back up. He took a long drink from Regulus's glass and shook his head. "No, Greyback goes wherever there's money."

"So you think the man is paying him for his assistance?"

León shrugged. "That or some other form of compensation. Maybe promises, maybe connections, I don't really know."

"How dangerous is he?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"León, we have a deal," Regulus whined.

"Yeah, okay. Well, that depends. He doesn't come from a family with any terrible propensity for dueling, but he is very brutal. He prides himself on his ability to transform partially at his will. A bite from him like that and…I don't know. You might be fine, you might be a little bit infected with lycanthropy." León shrugged and pushed Regulus glass back to him.

Regulus's lip curled. "Werewolves are disgusting, aren't they?" There was a slight scream from the dancefloor that they both ignored.

"Now, now, now," León tapped the back of Regulus's hand. "I'll give you Fenrir, yes, he's a monster, but it's not because he is a werewolf. They're not lesser people, Regulus, they're just different. You should not let your parents brainwash you so."

"What am I supposed to say about werewolves?"

"That they're just like us," said León slowly.

"Hmm," Regulus said in a flat voice. "You're trying to condition me."

"What, come again?" León stared at him.

"You, just now. Trying to convince me that everyone's an equal. You're trying to make me think exactly like you do. You're brainwashing me."

"No, Regulus, listen, this is different. Your parents are _wrong._ What I'm saying is right: you shouldn't judge people. You shouldn't be so hateful."

"Is it okay, then?" Regulus asked. "To force someone to be like you, if you know that you are right?"

"¡Mis creencias son correctas!"

"That is exactly what Mother and Father say to Sirius. He listens to them sometimes, but I don't think anything anyone says really sticks with him."

León sat back and blinked a few times. Then he smiled. "That little spat got us off topic, didn't it?"

"Yes," Regulus commented. After a second he added, "Don't worry, León. Mother and Father waste all their mind control efforts on Sirius." And that was as good a reassurance as León was going to get out of his cousin.

"But we'll take your words into account for a minute, all right?" Regulus continued. "Forget about Greyback being vicious and an absolute monster. What other kind of recon work might he be cut out for? Any other sorts of jobs the Dark Lord might send him on that _don't_ involve biting people and slobbering into their wounds?"

"I'm not quite sure I can answer that, really," León admitted. In the distance behind him, something crashed. "He's not unintelligent, I'm sure he could be stealthy if he wanted to."

Regulus nodded briefly. "Can we talk about his boss now?"

"You're not going to let this one go, are you?" León asked. When Regulus shook his head, he reluctantly continued. "All right so here's all I know that I'm certain you won't already: the man came out of nowhere, right? So there's no way in hell he's of decent birth, or else he'd be flaunting it, especially with the agenda he's on."

"Does he really claim lineage from Salazar himself?" Regulus asked with interest.

"Yes, but a claim like that is useless without the paperwork to back it up. Like I was saying, the man thrives on manipulation. It's all he's really very good at. He has two breeds of followers: those who are insanely loyal to him and his ideals, and those who he pays or threatens into assisting. People in the former group have been tricked as well as anyone. I am inclined to believe that the man cares less than we'd like to think he does about the status of someone's blood." León shrugged and let his eyes wander out to the people dancing. "He's exploiting the irrational fears and hatred of our society's most powerful people. It's a power-grab, and I can't help but think of him as a small child breaking things for attention."

Regulus let León sit calmly in silence for a minute before speaking. "You think there's anything he might be looking for, specifically? Some item that would help him?"

"Like what?"

Regulus shrugged.

"Regulus I have no idea what you're talking about. Now…do you need to know anything else? I feel like I've corrupted you completely now, you're parents would have my head on a_pike._"

"No, I think that's good. Combined with what I've managed to gather on my own time, I believe my curiosity is gone now."

León's wolfish smile slid back into place. He reached forward ruffled his long fingers about Regulus's hair. Regulus grimaced.

"All right, what say I walk you outside and we apparate you within walking distance of your home?"

"Will you be coming to Father and Mother's party this weekend, on the twenty-fourth?" asked Regulus, standing up. There seemed to be some growing commotion in one of the corners of the bar that was rapidly spreading throughout the crowd.

"The whole reason I'm in town," León smiled again.

"Well perhaps I'll see you then," Regulus nodded.

León fished some paper money out of his pocket and left it on the table. "Will Nii-san be coming home for the festivities as well?"

Regulus glared coldly.

"I'll take that as a no," León whispered. Someone screamed and both he and Regulus turned to stare when they heard several shot glasses fall to the floor.

"What is happening?" asked Regulus. "I—oh, _Dante!_" he scrambled forward to snatch his pet out of the lap of a very angry looking man seated at the bar. "I apologize," Regulus intoned briefly before slipping Dante inside his jacket and slinking back over to his cousin. The man glared and ran a hand over his jeans. "Let's go, León," he murmured. "All these people are staring."

"I believe your little friend may have scared a few people," León commented as they made their way to the door, people craning their necks to get a good look at them. Someone behind them said in mild confusion, "what the hell _is_ it?"

Regulus held his head up regally as the door closed behind them and they were once again on the dreariest of London's back streets. "Well someone should teach them all not to freak out when they're confronted with a little diversity."

León doubled over and laughed. "That's what I like to hear." He stood back up. "Truly dismal weather for it being so near to Christmas, though," he admitted. "Where's all of Britain's snow?"

Regulus ignored him, but held out his arm, expecting León to take it and transport him home. Instead his cousin put on a fake serious face and pointed at Regulus.

"Remember," he said. "Not a word to your parents that I took you here, I'm sure they wouldn't care for the crowd."

"Mmhmm," Regulus said absent-mindedly.

León went on, "Quieren que te cases con una chica."

"Wait a minute," Regulus let his arm fall back to his side. Suddenly he shuddered. _"León! _Me llevaste a un bar…bar de…" he sputtered. "_To a gay bar?"_

Leon smirked and grabbed Regulus's wrist. "Stop gaping like that and open your mind a little." He yanked Regulus up close to him. "Not a word to your parents, now, no? Don't want to be uninvited to the Christmas party, _ha!"_ He swiveled them both sharply and then they were gone.

* * *

><p>"So? How'd it go?"<p>

"Eargh, Kreacher, I knew you would be lying in wait for me as soon as I returned. Haven't you got anything better to do?"

Kreacher gave him an incredulous look.

"Oh, right," Regulus admitted, shucking off his coat and throwing it to the dining room floor. Dante scampered off up the stairs, making his way to either Regulus or Sirius's room. "I suppose you really _don't._"

Kreacher was silent. Regulus scratched at his frizzing hair, cursing what the rain and bar smoke had done to it.

"Why don't you leave, Kreacher?" asked Regulus suddenly. His voice echoed bizarrely around the otherwise empty dining room.

"I don't know, Regulus. Why make things harder on myself? Besides what would you do without me?"

"You're a terrible liar, Kreacher, really. You should take some lessons from me," Regulus meandered idly to one of the cupboards only to find it sealed by his parents. _No snacking for Regulus,_ he pouted.

"What did your cousin have to say, Regulus?" asked Kreacher. He climbed up the cutlery drawers and perched himself on the counter next to the cabinet door Regulus was futilely tugging on. Regulus gave up after a moment and hopped up on the counter as well. Kreacher kicked at the drawers below him in a relaxing show of casualness he would never have risked in the presence of any other wizard. Not even Sirius.

Regulus related the little information he'd gained from his romp in the rain and subsequent visit to the gay bar.

"So you gained…basically nothing?" asked Kreacher, blinking.

"Hey, give me a break, my age has only just entered the double digits!" Insisted Regulus. "I am trying."

Kreacher rolled his eyes. "So modest," he said. "You've gained more than you think."

Regulus smiled. "I know," he said. "But our argument-esque exchanges are always so fun, aren't they?"

Kreacher gave a toothy smile. "You've succeeded in endearing yourself to León, all right," he said. "And that will be very advantages in the future. He's been everywhere, and he knows a great deal. _And_ he remains fairly unembroiled in family politics. I bet he'd make a good pen pal for you, Regulus. That is if I know you at all, in which case you will be in a constant state of prowling for information for at least the next eight years or so."

"God, you do know me well."

"It's my job," Kreacher suddenly jumped down and motioned for Regulus to copy him. "As a matter of fact," he continued. "I'd wager that I know you best of anyone, at least that's how it's looking at the moment. Come with me."

Regulus followed him curiously up the stairs to his own bedroom. The sound of Kreacher's voice frightened Dante under the bedcovers.

"What's up?" asked Regulus.

"My best guess," said Kreacher with a little sadness. "Is that your parents will remember sometime tomorrow, or perhaps at the Christmas party, when some distant aunt of yours will probably bring it up, but I have a little something to hold you over." He slipped briefly under Regulus's bed where he had earlier hidden a small package. Reemerging, he handed the neatly wrapped box to Regulus.

"Happy eleventh birthday, Regulus," he said quietly.

Regulus didn't smile as he took the present, but his eyes were warm. He didn't ask what it was, only opened it. Carefully he folded the unripped paper, and set it in a neat pile, like he was channeling Japan or something.

Up against the light of his room's lit chandelier he held a pair of fingerless black gloves made of leather and a soft black fabric. The left one was longer and had a green pattern down the forearm. Quickly, Regulus put them on. He had to admit they looked quite nice, but he knew better than to assume that had been Kreacher's goal.

"They'll grow as you do," said the elf. "And…here," he flicked open his hand, and Regulus's stolen wand flew casually into it. Amused, Regulus watched as Kreacher slid it down the design on Regulus's left glove. It merged seamlessly with the fabric and disappeared in the matter of an instant.

"Go ahead," Kreacher nodded. "Flick your wrist."

Regulus made a determined motion with his left hand, and the broken wand slid perfectly into his palm. He held it up to the ceiling and changed the light from his chandelier to a gentle blue color, bursting one of the bulbs, but the rest remained adamant. Then he looked to Kreacher, who gave a shrug.

"I made it myself."

Regulus twirled his wand in his hand and slid it easily back into the glove where it was, for all intents and purposes, vanished.

He shook his head a little.

"Why, Kreacher? Why do you stay here?"

* * *

><p>The foolish part of Regulus's brain kept trying to explain to him (in a very gentle manner, as though he were a small, mildly slow, child) that however much he willed it, he was not going to be getting any fluttering birthday owls from Sirius. So, to make his brain shut up, Regulus told himself sternly that he sat by his bedroom window staring at the sky because he wanted to be watching the stars when the clock struck eleven-forty, the actual hour of his birth. Certainly not because he hoped to see one of them obscured for an instant as a message from the school ghosted in front of it.<p>

By one-thirty in the morning, however, he had finally given up. Mindlessly, he undressed and then rummaged around in his dresser for a nightshirt, shifting Dante to the side to reach the clothing underneath him. Dante yawned at him before snuggling back into his clothing.

With a sigh, Regulus melted into his bed and buried his face in his pillow, a million excuses for his brother dying on their way to the area of his brain that accepted things as truth. Sad, but pretending his hardest not to be, he fell asleep about half an hour later.

"Wake up, Regulus," Kreacher was shaking him gently around two a.m.

"Don't bother me," Regulus replied grumpily, and without removing his face from the blankets. "Unless the house in on fire or something. And actually, if that's the case, kindly just put it out and leave me the hell alone." His words were a little slurred with sleep, and some of them may have inadvertently been skipped altogether, but that didn't deter Kreacher's persistent shaking.

"I tried to be nice, Regs, now freaking get up!" he yanked the covers away and unceremoniously whacked Regulus about the head. With a cry, Regulus sat up, arms flailing. Kreacher did_not_ do things like that. Bleary eyed, he squinted at the figure next to his bed and it most certainly wasn't his house elf. Sirius was standing with arrogance, illuminated lightly by the large moon outside the window, and looking quite pleased with himself.

"Good to see you don't still sleep in my bed every time I leave the house for a night," he noted. "Girly habit."

Regulus slipped out of bed and stood smiling up at his brother. Sirius grinned.

"I meant to get here at the stroke of eleven-forty, but the only floo powder I could get ahold of was in the teacher's lounge, and Professor Tektite stays up _late."_

"I'm only a year behind you now," said Regulus smugly.

Sirius smacked him lightly upside the head and said seriously. "Don't get full of yourself, my birthday's in a month, then you'll be back to two years trailing behind me. And besides, you're still the size of an eight year-old."

"I am not," insisted Regulus, although he had to bitterly note that Sirius had a good head on him.

"Whatever, you're a goddam midget, now let's get going."

Regulus cocked his head a little to the side, but didn't ask any questions. He slipped into some jeans and a normal shirt, and then quickly slipped on his gloves. Curiously, Sirius eyed the longer left one.

Regulus followed Sirius into the guest room on the top floor, and the two of them slipped out its forgotten, unwarded window. Sirius noted with pride the extra provisions Regulus had added for climbing down the side of the house. There were small handholds that blended perfectly against the paintjob, invisible from any substantial distance. They had obviously been done by magic, so Sirius assumed Regulus had ordered Kreacher to make them.

The two of them walked through the backyard under the boughs of the large, bare, tree and circled around to the street. On instinct, Sirius grabbed Regulus's sleeve and kept him close and away from the cars that rumbled by.

"You can use the fireplaces to get to the school?" asked Regulus, wondering vaguely if his adventures with Shop had been completely pointless.

"Yes," said Sirius. "But only if you have some of this," he pulled a small bag of floo powder out of his pocket and showed it to Regulus. "It's dark so you can't really tell, but it's slightly off color. This stuff belongs to the school and it's specially coded. You have to use this stuff to use the school's fireplaces, and they keep an alarmingly close watch on the stuff. I'll expect they'll be in a frenzy over this small amount I took." There was a deserved amount of smugness to Sirius's tone. Regulus leaned into him a little.

"I read in a book somewhere, Sirius, that you can tell the future from the stars. Only so many of the stars in the sky are already gone, and we're just seeing what's left of their light as it continually travels to us, so maybe there's nothing to all that nonsense. But then again, history does have a tendency to repeat itself with startling regularity; and seeing the future from the past, I suppose there's something a bit poetic in that."

He stopped talking before his words became too long and obnoxious.

Sirius paused under the eave of an old house. He put an arm around Regulus's shoulders and pointed up to an area of sky encircled in, but not covered by clouds. The very bright star in the middle shone from its perch atop the dog constellation.

"That star there can see the future very clearly," he said. In a rare show of sweetness he gently ruffled Regulus's hair and kissed his forehead. "And it says you are going to be very strong, and eventually have everything you've ever wanted.

"Happy eleventh birthday, Regs."

_/signed tenkuroi_

* * *

><p>(Rough) Translations:<p>

_Vamonos: _"Let's get out of here."

_Vamos a ir a un bar que sirva cerveza a redrojos como tú: "_We are going to go to a bar that serves beer to runts like you."

_Guíame: "_Guide me."

_Estamos en tu ciudad: "_We're in _your_ city."

_Primo: _"Cousin."

_Es muy ruidoso: "_It's very noisy."

_Gatito…muy lindo: _"Kitten…really cute."

_Te lo suplico: _"I beg of you."

_España es muy religiosa. No he podido escapar de los delirios: _"Spain is very religious. I haven't been able to escape the delusions."

_Présteme atención: _"Pay attention to me."

_Excelente: _"Excellent."

_¿El Señor Tenebroso y sus Mortífagos?: _"The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters?"

_¡Mis creencias son correctas!: "_My beliefs are correct!"

_Quieren que te cases con una chica: "_They want you to marry a girl."

_Me llevaste a un bar…bar de…:_ "You brought me to a bar…a bar for…"


	8. 0 For Once, For Twice

**_Christmas is just another emotionally bankrupt and ultimately disheartening social obligation for Regulus, he must be doing it wrong._**

* * *

><p>The sheer, determined volume of snow now littering the Hogwarts grounds had finally driven Lily to the sanctuary of the Ravenclaw common room where she now lay, notebook in front of her face, tracing hiragana. No one could say she hadn't tried to be a winter person, but the cold flakes soaking through her paper had been where she had had to draw the line.<p>

"Lily?" asked a third year Ravenclaw calmly. "Somebody outside the common room wants to see you."

"Who?" she asked without looking up.

"Hell if I know, some whiny, little stuck-up brat with too much black hair."

"Oh," Lily flipped over onto her back, holding her pen and paper out in front of her face. "That'd be Sirius. You can let him in, he's harmless."

The boy rolled his eyes but slid open the door anyway. "Get in, I suppose," he said grumpily. "Wasn't aware that we were running a sanctuary for Gryffindor's rejects."

Sirius, looking quite unhappy, stepped inside, strode over to Lily and stood by her head. He was silent for a long while.

Finally, he demanded, "well?"

"Uzēndayo," came the casual reply from behind the notebook.

"What?" asked Sirius in his most dangerous voice.

"_Shi_ne."

"_What?_"

"Shi—whoa-now!" Sirius hauled her to her feet.

"Unnecessary, dude, you made me drop my stuff…"

"Can we talk for a minute?" asked Sirius, letting go of the front of her shirt. Lily dusted herself off and looked casually around the mostly empty common room. A few more sleepy looking Ravenclaws were making their way out from their bedrooms, however, and for that reason, Lily swiftly picked up her stuff and led Sirius back out into the tower hallway.

"'Sup?" she asked as they walked down a narrow staircase, Sirius trailing moodily behind her.

"I was just wondering," he said. "When exactly you were planning on—" _telling me that Regulus was here again_ "—cluing me in on, you know, your plan to go gallivanting after terrorists."

Lily stopped dead at the bottom of the stairs. Cautiously, she eyed the nearest portrait on the wall, uneasy of how alert it seemed. She yanked Sirius by the arm down another hallway where there were fewer Walled Teachers' Snitches.

"Okay, now… what?" she asked again.

Sirius, unhappy from being manhandled, was content to glare for a minute before responding.

"You need to tell me what is going on," he explained.

Lily looked at him confusedly for a moment, and then her eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh!" she yelled. "I forgot to tell Severus! I don't want him to feel left out!" Quickly she turned and sprinted off down some more stairs, giving an angry Sirius no chance but to follow her all the way to the ground floor of the castle where they both paused, out of breath.

"Okay, he's probably in his dorm…"

"No, Lily, fuck Severus, I need you to tell _me. Now._"

"Well it…"

"_Lily!"_ Sirius yelled. "For the love of _god._"

"Okay," she said, grabbing his shoulders and trying to steady him. "Walk with me to go get Severus and I'll explain to you both. Oh…you weren't supposed to know! Actually, wait… no one was supposed to know; this has sort of gotten out of hand."

"Well I'm in the know now, so suck it up and fill me in," Sirius demanded.

"Right, come on, then."

Sirius let out an exasperated sigh.

The entrance to the Slytherin commons appeared to be a wall. Lily was to be congratulated on her admirable feat of properly locating it, but her entrance tactic (which seemed to amount to staring quizzically at the cold stone with one eyebrow quirked) left a considerable amount to be desired.

"I don't suppose you know how to get inside, do you?" Sirius asked with an annoyed expression on his face.

"There's probably a password," Lily observed. "Sirius, quick, start saying a bunch of racist stuff."

"What makes you think _I'd_ know whatever bigoted password they operate with?"

"Because you're you!"

"No! I refuse to—" but he was cut off by an obnoxious giggle from a portrait on the wall behind them. Spinning around, he glared at the painting, a four foot tall rendition of a slender man with calm, hazel eyes and dusky brown hair.

"What?" Sirius snarled.

"Sorry," snickered the man. "And there's no need to snap at me!"

"Do you know the password?" asked Lily, peering out from behind Sirius and eyeing the portrait apprehensively.

"Yes, it's the same one they've been using all year."

"That doesn't help us at all," growled Sirius in irritation. Emboldened, Lily stepped out from behind him.

"Are you Salazar Slytherin?" she asked.

The man folded his arms and leaned against his frame. "I'm his nephew, actually. Demissio. I took over for him here at the school after he left."

Lily's eyes widened. "Why did he leave?" she asked.

A shrug. "Had a disagreement with his friends and they were all to bloody proud to just agree to disagree. He didn't want to go, though, and was pretty miserable for the rest of his life after he stopped teaching here."

Lily stepped right up to the portrait and stared up unblinkingly at his painted eyes. Sirius hung back near the other side of the hallway and glared.

"That's so sad!"

"Well it was sort of his own damn fault," conceded Demissio.

"Yeah, but it was also the fault of the other three as well," Lily insisted.

Sirius spoke up, "None of the others built a hidden death chamber underneath a school."

"What?" asked Lily.

"That was never proven," said Demission icily.

"Are you going to give us the fucking password or not?" Sirius griped.

Demissio straightened his shirt and stared coldly at the two of them. "I would," he said. "But it would do you no good. The student you're looking for left a few hours ago."

"Left? To go where?" Sirius asked before Demissio had even finished speaking. "That's way too early for breakfast."

"I have no idea where he went, but you'll get nowhere traipsing around looking for him. Just sit here and wait, why don't you? Best of luck," he added, waving idly and striding out of his frame.

"Bye," Lily said, waving. "Happy Hanukah!"

Sirius glowered.

"Well," said Lily defensively. "He might have been Jewish!"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't honestly think we're going to just sit here, does he?"

"I wonder if Severus went for a walk," said Lily from her new position sprawled out against the dungeon floor. "He went for lots of walks back home…"

"Lily," asked Sirius. "If no one was supposed to know about those men you saw, then why are you so hell bent on telling Snape?"

"What do you mean? He should know, too, I mean, if you and James and Remus and Peter are all going to be co-conspirators."

"Wait, you've told all of them already, too? No, what I mean is that you were acting like you'd been meaning to tell him all along and just forgot to because you're a goddamn idiot."

Lily frowned with good natured annoyance at Sirius's words.

"I guess he's just more trustworthy than any of you other guys."

A moment passed.

"Aren't you going to sit down, Sirius?"

Sirius folded his arms. "No," he said. "I'm good."

Lily stifled her laughter. "You really don't like being the last person to know, do you?"

"Know what?" asked someone from down the hall. Lily and Sirius both turned to see Remus making his way steadily towards them, his arms full of tinsel and several small, orange wreaths floating obediently behind him.

"To know about the men in the forest," explained Lily, pulling herself back up.

"Ah, you mean that story you were telling James, Peter and me the other night while Sirius was off brooding somewhere?"

Lily nodded and watched curiously as Remus approached the now empty portrait of Slytherin's nephew. Carefully he began to attach the glowing tinsel to all four sides, having to jump to get the top one.

"What the hell are you doing?" demanded Sirius.

"Decorating Demissio's picture frame. Lily, were you down here looking for Severus? I just saw him earlier, he's in the owlery delivering a Christmas card to his parents."

"That's sweet of him," Lily commented. Remus pulled two candles from his pocket, placed one on each side of the frame, and lit them. Lily ran her fingers over one and it changed colors.

"Pretty," she murmured while behind her Sirius yanked one of the orange floating wreaths out of the air. He tried to pull off the little black bats and leaves that were fixed to it, but they remained put.

"Why," he asked. "Are your wreaths the wrong color?"

"Well, the school never really got decorated for Hallowe'en so I'm pulling double duty."

He took the wreath from Sirius and placed both it and its contemporaries on the wall were they sat, shaking every few seconds to alternate between orange with black bats and green with red berries.

"Where'd you get them?" asked Lily.

"Tektite. He said I could put them up wherever I liked," answered Remus, dusting needles off his shirt.

"So you came all the way down here to the dungeons?" asked Sirius incredulously. To be honest, though, he wasn't too put off. This was exactly the sort of thing Regulus would have done—

"It, well…I don't know, it just seemed like…I mean I met Demissio in one of the other pictures a few weeks ago and he seemed nice, and I thought it was sad that his portrait was all alone down here in the dark so…I just, I don't know…"

—only Regulus would never have apologized for it. Sirius's mind was suddenly filled with the image of Regulus in a similar situation. Upon being asked to explain himself, he would pause, incline his head ever so slightly, and then politely intone something along the lines of, "you never do fail to ask pointless questions. Enjoy my decorations."

God, maybe he was looking forward to the next school year more than he thought.

"Come on…" said Lily, linking arms with them both (Sirius immediately jerked away). "Let's go to the owlery to talk to Severus. I'd like to let him in on everything that's happened."

Remus was silent for a moment while they walked, still a little shy over Sirius's comment, but soon he asked quietly, "What are we going to do?"

"About the guys?" asked Lily as they came to the foot of the first staircase. After taking deep breaths, they set off jogging up it.

"Yeah…" Remus panted, shaking his hair from his eyes.

Briefly Lily recalled Regulus's warning from their last meeting, _Step back and think for a little while. Find out what it is they're after if we can…make certain that Sirius and all the others know not to go looking for them…_

"We're going to figure out what it is that they are looking for, and then we're going to find it first," she translated.

Up a dozen more flights of stairs and they finally collapsed together against the railing.

"He's in…here," Remus gasped, throwing all his weight against the door to open it. Lily and Sirius traipsed after him.

"Severus," Lily said in a raspy voice as she made her way over to the boy where he sat, rather precariously perched, on a cold windowsill, watching the occasional owl flutter in or out.

"Oh, hello," he said politely, nodding to them and tightening his scarf against the onslaught of wind and snowflakes. "What brings you guys all up here this morning?"

"We're enlisting you," said Lily bluntly. Sirius ran a hand over his face with exasperation.

"For what?" Severus asked, uncrossing his legs and standing up, his eyes shining with interest.

Lily immediately launched into her predetermined explanation, and Remus interjected when necessary. Sirius scowled.

"And you think sabotaging their plans by ourselves is a better idea than telling, like, a teacher?" he asked the obligatory question just to get it out of the way.

"Uh…yeah, pretty much, yes," Remus nodded.

"It's not like anyone will believe us," said Lily, again borrowing Regulus's words. "They won't do anything, we'll all get in trouble, and they'll be on to us, so if we did try to do something ourselves after telling, we'd never be able to!"

"All right, all right," Severus conceded. "Just had to ask. I promise you can count on me, just let me know what you need me to do and when."

"Perfect," Lily smiled and held out her frozen hand for him to shake. "Consider yourself drafted."

Severus snickered.

"Woah!" Remus held out his arm and caught a large owl just as it tumbled in from the sky, ruffled and covered in snow.

"It's got a letter!" Severus observed, pointing. Remus nodded and removed the note, setting the bird on a perch to rest as he did so.

"Let's see…oh! It's for Sirius!" he exclaimed. "Perfect timing…Here."

Sirius took the letter and glanced at the address. With a slight shake of his head, he tore it in half and threw it out the window.

Everyone gaped at him.

"What on earth did you do that for?" Severus asked in amazement.

"I already know what it is," said Sirius dismissively. He turned his back on them and started off down the staircase so he could go collect his thoughts about this whole situation with the Death Eaters in the forest…and maybe do so over some food. "It's a letter from my father telling me to come home tonight for the holidays and whatnot, but I already know that, and besides, it's not like I'm actually going…"

* * *

><p>Cautiously, Regulus peered around the door frame and into the dining room. The last time he had looked, there had been nearly twenty extra people in his house. Now that number had doubled. Regulus grimaced and sank back into the shadows. He wasn't sure if he hated Christmas, his family, or just people in general, but something was certainly getting on his nerves. Even Kreacher had abandoned him (albeit reluctantly as he was still recovering from his most recent bout with unsuspected unconsciousness) in order to jostle around in between people's ankles, serving desserts and mixing drinks.<p>

Regulus sulked unabashedly. He wasn't used to being entirely alone like this. Dante was tucked into Sirius's bed with some sort of respiratory thing he had picked up from exploring the drafty basements with Regulus, and this left the youngest Black aggravated and bitter.

No Sirius, no Kreacher, no Dante…Regulus sighed.

Bracing himself, he risked another glance in on his relatives.

Sure enough, there was León, flirting with everyone from Narcissa to Rodolphus. Regulus didn't have anything to say to him at the moment, so he kept his end of their bargain and made no moves to approach his cousin.

He turned around and crossed his arms, blowing his bangs out of his face with a huff. Behind him, some female relative complained loudly that they were out of wine.

Regulus heard a tapping at the drawing room window and meandered in to investigate. One of his parents' seven owls was pecking at the glass. "Hello, Roku," Regulus said softly, letting her in. She was obviously back from delivering his Christmas present to Sirius (a holiday card containing instructions on how to get Shop to give him free candy, a book about dragons that he had said he'd wanted, and a handy set of paper, quills, and ink all used for sending encoded or invisible letters). She had returned empty-handed.

Carefully, Regulus positioned her on his forearm and journeyed through the twisting hallways to the small room on the fourth floor reserved for all the birds.

"Thanks for making the flight, I guess," he said solemnly. Roku fluttered off to settle on a perch between Ichi and Go.

Regulus propped open the window before he left, in case any of the birds wanted to fly around outside in the light snow, and then returned to the familial festivities in an even worse mood.

"Where are you going, Kreacher?" he asked sharply as the little elf collided with his shins, having bolted like lightning out of the party area.

"Uh…" Kreacher blinked a few times, and then focused his eyes on Regulus. Recognizing him, he sighed in relief. "Going to the cellar, we need more wine…and then to the attic, Narcissa wants to show Rabastan some pictures that are in an album your parents keep stored up there."

"Tell you what," said Regulus, backing down the hallway a little so they were for sure out of sight and earshot. "I'll go into the cellar and get the wine for everyone, and you can go get the photo album from the attic, you'll be done twice as fast. Sound like a plan?"

Kreacher eyed Regulus's grin suspiciously for a moment, but then the temptation of speeding up his return to Master and Mistress's sides was too much. "All right," he nodded. "They want the Claret, '44, okay? Nothing newer than that."

"Got it," Regulus rolled his eyes. Kreacher hustled off to the attic.

"Here we go."

Regulus sauntered boldly into the kitchen and carefully wove his way around everyone who stood, talking and snacking. The radio clock on the counter read four-thirty, _dinner would be served soon,_ and sent a wordless Christmas song floating through the room.

Regulus approached the cabinet above the spice rack and, after clambering up on the counter so he could reach it, removed a handful of bottles of food coloring. To his left, his parents mildly discussed politics with Narcissa's boyfriend; to his right, his Uncle Alphard described to Andromeda in proud detail whatever excellent gift he had mailed off to Sirius.

Regulus slipped past everyone and marched determinedly to the cellar door, threw it open, and clattered down the stone steps, slipping his wand out of his glove.

"Lumos…dammit. Lux, luz, fucking…_Akarusa!_"

A bright light spiraled outwards from Regulus, attaching itself to every corner of the room, and almost blinding him.

"Ah, okay…" Regulus blinked fiercely, rubbed his eyes a few times, and then set about his task, knowing if he took too long, Kreacher would come down. Within seconds he had located the Claret. Smugly, he removed the labels off six bottles, then set about searching again.

Hock, Ice, Port, Prädikat…where was it?

He sifted through rack after rack, bottles clinking together noisily, before he found what he was looking for. Smirking he peeled off the labels from six bottles of clear liquid, along with their _Proof 190 _warning stickers.

He switched the labels and put the Caret back on a random shelf, adequately disguised.

"And here we go…" he opened the others carefully, using an actual corkscrew because he didn't trust his wand not to send any bottles flying. Then he added enough coloring to deceive the already mildly intoxicated eye, closed the bottles with new corks and sauntered back upstairs.

Without a word, he left the alcohol on the counter for someone to find. Kreacher, who was handing a large, leather-bound book to Narcissa, glanced at him. Regulus winked at the elf and then walked back off into the drawing room where he collapsed into an armchair.

He was staring numbly, watching the snowflakes killing themselves against the window panes when a hand descended upon his shoulder, startling him.

"León?" he asked quizzically as the man grinned and sat down beside him. "What happened to pretending we haven't spoken in half a decade?"

"No one will notice I'm gone for a few moments, and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Regulus looked skeptical. "I'm fine, cousin," he said.

"You expect me to believe that after the conversation we had last week?"

Regulus grumbled.

"Do you miss your brother? I heard Cousins Walburga and Orion griping that he stood them up the other day and didn't ride the train home from school like he was supposed to."

His statement made Regulus slouch even more than he was already. He had been so certain for a few days there that Sirius would come home to see him after all. That's what had happened last time, wasn't it? He had fainted in the library and so his father wrote a letter to Sirius to let him know. Then Sirius had allowed him to stay in the castle overnight and even ventured home for his birthday. Had it been that foolish of him to assume the notice sent to Sirius that his little brother had collapsed again would have been enough to entice his return for Christmas Vacation? Didn't Sirius want to make sure he was okay?

"Yes, he really wants nothing to do with us."

"I'm sure his animosity doesn't extend to you, Little One," León threw his feet up onto the coffee table and draped an arm over Regulus's shoulders, pulling him close. Regulus stiffened.

"Don't be like that," León chided. "Just squint your eyes and pretend I'm Nii-san."

"Hmph."

"You know, I thought of something the other day." León seemed to be trying his hardest to cheer Regulus up.

"What?" Regulus asked. He had partially taken his cousin's advice, and had closed his eyes all together.

"You asked me about any kind of an item that the Rising Dark Lord might be seeking."

Regulus stopped breathing for fear any words on his part might bring León to his senses and make him stop talking.

"And I was reminded of a quote from an article I edited for a periodical in southern Germany last year. A supporter of his said something about Voldemort making 'sufficient strides towards immunizing himself to the passage of time and the curses of others.' So if he's searching for anything, it'll be to help him in that regard, though I'll admit I'm not so sure what would do that…

"Not that this is anything to concern yourself with; I'm sure it's a hopeless chase of his. You had wondered, though, so I thought this might satisfy your curiosity. I guess Voldemort would like very much to make himself immortal, in a sense. The man who said as much is dead now, of course. His name was something like—"

However, Regulus was no longer listening. With careful movements, he stood himself up and made a determined path out of the room. In the doorway, he paused.

"León?"

His cousin blinked at him, obviously startled by his sudden departure.

"Yes?"

"No bebe el vino."

_/signed tenkuroi_

* * *

><p><em>Translation:<em>

"_No bebe el vino" (_You) Don't drink the wine.


	9. 0 In Which All Rationality Fails

"Immortal, you say?" inquired Kreacher dubiously. Regulus was tearing books of his parents' shelves in an absolute frenzy, scanning each one for all of twelve seconds before chucking it behind him. He had impressive piles going in almost every aisle, one of them landsliding every few minutes with an audible _clatter. _It was nearly nine-thirty in the morning; Regulus had been in the library all night.

"Yes, immortal, he's making himself immortal, although which kind of immortal, I'm not sure."

"Which…kind?" Kreacher asked, quickly sidestepping a flying book. It smacked against the wall and the spine shattered on impact, making the house elf grimace. That was going to be a trick to fix.

"Yes, yes, I don't know which type he's going for, or which is actually possible, and I won't know until I find what it is that _He's_ looking for and that's got to be somewhere in this _swamp_ of books and all I know is that part of whatever it is is up there at that school right now and _His _lackeys can't be allowed to grab hold of it—"

"Reg. U. _Lus!_" Kreacher shouted, looking wildly alarmed. "Calm down, breath, and backtrack a little bit here. _What_ do you mean 'which kind of immortality'?"

Regulus sank to his knees and spread an enormous reference book out in front of him. It creaked with age and several puffs of orange smoke emitted from the index page as Regulus scanned his finger down the chapter headings.

"What I mean, _Kreacher_, is that you can either be immortal where you can't and won't die ever from _anything. _Or you can be immortal where you don't ever die from old age but can still be killed. And also about a dozen derivatives thereof, but those are the basic two."

Regulus's voice was cracking and he had to pause mid-sentence several times to cough. He seriously hoped he wasn't coming down with something now of all times, but since when had the cosmos ever aligned in _his_ favor?

"Let me just restate what I think is going on here," said Kreacher. With a small burst of magic, he closed Regulus's book and pushed him to his feet. "You are telling me that the Rising Dark Lord has plans of immortality (in and of itself not a huge shock), there are Death Eaters stationed at the school, and you for some reason appear to be planning a course of action that does not seem to involve running straight to your parents."

Regulus glared at Kreacher and heaved the heavy book back open. "Yes," he said, discarding it a moment later anyway. "That's pretty much it, now why don't you go make yourself useful, Kreacher, and make Father some poisoned tea or something. He's still half-drunk from the party last night; It would be really easy to slip it to him…"

"Regulus—"

"And be sure to open Sirius's door on your way to the kitchen so Dante can come out if he's feeling up to it."

"Regulus, you have got to go to an adult! At the very least someone should know about those men skulking around up at the school. You _do_ want to keep Sirius safe, don't you?"

Regulus whirled around to face the elf. "Of course I bloody well do!" he yelled.

"Then tell your parents, or get word to a teacher," begged Kreacher. "Don't start something on your own, Regulus, you're going to find yourself in so much trouble."

"Since _when_ has any adult been of the slightest use to me?" demanded Regulus. "It's like they say, 'if you want something done, do it yourself'."

"You crazy child," Kreacher said crossly. "Why do you have to be so damn independent? With what you saw, you should be hiding in your parents' bed right now, fending off nightmares, not scheming to get yourself _killed._"

"I'm not trying to get myself killed," insisted Regulus.

Kreacher advanced on him until he had the child backed up against the nearest unstable mound of discarded books. Regulus stumbled a little and reached behind himself to try and steady his feet. He ended up slipping and falling entirely to the ground, putting him down at roughly Kreacher's height.

"That's certainly what it looks like," the elf seethed. "Something really screwy is going on up at that school and you're running around playing detective instead of alerting someone who could actually do something!"

Regulus kicked a book at Kreacher, sending his servant skittering to the side. "Your anger reminds me of something. Kreacher," he added in a very direct tone. "I _order_ you to not divulge any information regarding the Death Eaters at the school or my involvement thereof to _anyone_ without my permission…for at least one year."

Kreacher let an angry, gargling sound escape his throat. Regulus _never _gave him direct orders. "I wasn't going to _tell_ on you, Regulus!"

"Well you were sure worrying me!" Regulus staggered to his feet. "I can handle this, Kreacher. I'm not going to go running to a grown-up just so I can be punished, belittled, and imprisoned."

A strange looked overtook Kreacher's face. Curiously, he asked, "What are you talking about, Regulus?"

Regulus's eyes glinted briefly. "It's too late at this point," he argued. "No matter who I tell, my parents will get word eventually, and if they were to figure out that I've been sneaking around behind their backs, they will lock me up in my room."

"All children get grounded sometimes, Regulus," said Kreacher. "And that's certainly better than your father's normal discipline default setting."

"No," Regulus shook his head. "You know that's not what I mean. I'm not stupid, Kreacher. Sirius is a lost cause to Mother and Father. Maybe they're only just realizing it, but they can't control him, and the harder they try, the farther away he'll run. They'll get no respectable heir from my brother."

"You think they'll start to turn their sights to you?" asked Kreacher in disbelief. As much as he loved the youngest Black, he knew his masters did not share his feelings, and in most instances, regarded Regulus with dismissive contempt.

"When they discover they cannot bully Sirius into obeying them, yes, they will try to use me to make him jealous. That being said, if they hear of my most recent…hobby of running 'amok', as the saying goes, they'll fear they can't control me either. They will lock me up, Kreacher, and _chain_ me to this house if they have to." Regulus looked away. "I don't want that," he added in a whisper.

"No one can make you stay here _forever,_ Regulus," Kreacher said softly. He approached Regulus and extended a small hand to him. Regulus let him grip his wrist without protest.

"You of all people know what this place is like, Kreacher," he said in a pained voice. "Too much time here and it won't matter if there's nothing _physically_ stopping you from leaving, you still won't be able to, just look at mother…" His voice trailed off and Kreacher tactfully said nothing. He knew Regulus's mother was a sensitive topic for him.

Vaguely Kreacher wondered when Regulus's main reasoning had switched from protecting his brother to freeing himself of his family through this dangerous rebellion.

"I cannot and _will_ not spend my life fading into this house, Kreacher," said Regulus in an absolutely dead voice. He disconnected his arm from Kreacher and deftly snatched five or six likely helpful books from the nearest shelf. With them precariously perched in his hands, he left the library, presumably to search in peace in either his or Sirius's room.

Kreacher let him go.

* * *

><p>Several weeks passed, and every day without fail, Regulus could be found in the library. He rarely left and had begun sleeping there as well if only because he would frequently nod off against the rows of unforgiving books as he attempted to read twenty-four seven. Kreacher would have been more concerned about him if this behavior were more unusual but for Regulus, it was almost par for the course.<p>

He sometimes missed meals all together and had taken no part in his family's New Year's festivities except to send his owl, San flying off with a small present to his brother.

Then one day, around the start of February, it stopped. Regulus retreated into his bedroom and didn't step foot in the library for days. When Kreacher tried to approach him, he was violently shrugged off, and Regulus began locking his door. Standing outside Regulus's room, and trying valiantly to listen for signs of life beyond the door, Kreacher shook his head sadly. He could hear rustling movement and the occasional croon from that horrific animal Regulus called Dante.

Something was off. Kreacher knew Regulus well and this kind of behavior was not indicative of mere failure, but something far more concerning. Regulus wouldn't shut out the world like this if he'd merely been unsuccessful in searching for information on the Rising Dark Lord. No…Regulus had discovered something, and by the look of things, it wasn't something he liked.

To the house elf's enormous surprise, Regulus's parents even seemed to notice something was amiss, and they sent Kreacher specifically to get him and make sure he came to dinner.

Having been ordered by his Master, Kreacher was forced to disregard the youngest Black's request for privacy and went straight in through his locked bedroom door. He found Regulus curled up on his side, Dante nuzzled underneath his chin.

It had to be admitted that Dante was much less of an eyesore now, and more proportional certainly. His whiskers were no longer crinked and his fur was sleeker and had a visibly clean sheen to it. His eyes still narrowed at an odd angle, his muzzle was far too long for a cat, and his tail much too bushy, but overall he was looking more normal. Maybe he was just growing on Kreacher.

"Regulus," Kreacher whispered. "Your parents have requested you join them for dinner."

Regulus cracked open an eye. "Fuck off," he muttered. "And you can pass that message on."

"They've noticed you've stopped eating regularly."

"So what?"

"So I've been ordered to bring you downstairs. Please don't make this difficult on me, Regulus. Get out of bed and eat with your parents, and don't take too long. I don't feel much like a crucio to the cranium for you being slow."

Regulus heaved a sigh and got up. Dante made a low growling noise at Kreacher and flattened his ears as far as they could go. When he noticed Regulus leaving the room, he tried to follow.

"No, Dante," Regulus nudged him back towards the bed. "Stay in here. Kreacher will bring you some supper of your own."

Kreacher didn't have time to protest before Regulus was trudging down the hallway and he was left alone with the world's most misshapen cat.

"What do you suppose is wrong with him?" Kreacher asked Dante with a sigh. Dante skittered under the bed. Rolling his eyes, Kreacher made his way to the pantry to get something for the 'cat' to eat.

It was when he was making his way back up the stairs with some canned mackerel in hand that he heard the arguing. Cautiously, he set the food down on the bottom step of the stairwell and crept to just outside the dining room to listen. Immediately, he gathered that the argument was about Sirius.

Walburga and Orion Black were arguing coldly with one another, from opposite ends of the table, about Sirius's ineptitude as heir to the family. Neither would look up from their plate and they continued to eat calmly as they vehemently fought with their words. Walburga seemed to be asserting that he could yet be salvaged, while her husband scoffed and dismissed the possibility that his oldest son was on track to be worth anything.

Regulus sat right in the middle of it, gripping his silverware very tightly. Facing the doorway, he had a clear view of Kreacher, but didn't appear to see him; his entire face was hazed over.

Orion's words became more and more biting. Phrases like _disown him_ and _family shame_ kept cropping up. Kreacher wondered wildly if Sirius had gotten into some kind of trouble at school or if these were old feelings that had just finally boiled over.

Then Regulus spoke. "Give it up, Mother," he said. "Father is right. Sirius is a completely wasted effort. He already tramples on all we stand for, don't give him the opportunity to spit on our name, as well."

"He is only twelve…"

"No!" Regulus stood up vehemently. He seemed to have finally reached a breaking point. "He's thirteen! His birthday was two weeks ago…and you said the same thing last year. 'He's only eleven, let's wait one more year before sending him to school, give ourselves a little more time to grow him out of this _phase_ he's going through…'. Well guess what? He hasn't changed at all, Mother, and he's never going to. Just admit to yourself that he's a worthless traitor. Give up on him!"

Regulus's parents could only sit there, shocked, with their mouths agape. Neither seemed to have a response to such an outburst from a child who normally never spoke to either one of them.

Fuming, Regulus stormed from the dining room. He paused briefly in the doorway to yell back to his stunned parents, "And while you're at it, teach your bloody house elf to stop spying on all these kinds of conversations."

Then he was gone up the stairs.

Kreacher didn't lose any time in following him. He apparated directly inside Sirius's bedroom, knowing that was where Regulus would be. To his shock and dismay, he found Regulus lying on his brother's bed, unconscious.

Kreacher brought Regulus about himself, terrified to call the boy's parents for fear of any retaliation they might have, but growing increasingly worried as the minutes ticked by and the youngest Black heir remained comatose.

Finally he opened his eyes groggily, groaned, and rolled onto his side.

"What're you doing here?" he slurred. "Go away."

"For God's sake, Regulus, I'm here to see what the hell is wrong with you. You worked yourself into such a state down there in the kitchen that you fainted again! What on earth is going on?"

A little unsteadily, Regulus sat himself up. The usual sick feeling and overall weakness he experienced from passing out seemed to be disappearing quite rapidly tonight.

"What do you mean 'what's going on'? You were eavesdropping, you heard everything downstairs."

"I heard your parents arguing over how much of a failure your brother is or isn't," Kreacher said. "And then I saw you completely lose your mind, yell at your mother, and _side_ with your father. Calling Sirius a worthless traitor? Where did those words come from?"

"From my voicebox," hissed Regulus.

"I don't think I've ever heard you say so many words to either of your parents, and certainly not against your big brother. Now tell me, Regulus, what were you trying to accomplish by lying to them like that?"

Regulus bristled.

"Yes, I know you were lying through your teeth," Kreacher answered his unspoken question. "I _know_ you. Now just…explain this to me, please. What are you hoping to do by talking like you want Sirius disowned?"

"I want Sirius disowned," answered Regulus simply. His eyes were darting from the door to the window at an almost frantic pace. "Burned off the family tree. Forgotten."

Kreacher tilted his head.

"And I will keep pushing them until they do it."

"I thought you didn't want to be made their primary child, you just told me not that long ago that you couldn't bear the thought of them devoting all their attention to you, and now you're saying that you _want_ it?"

Regulus shrugged. "Situations change," he said, standing up. "Where's my wand?"

"Where are you going, Regulus," Kreacher growled.

"None of your concern. I order you to take care of Dante while I'm away, though. Do _not_ let Mother or Father discover him," Regulus muttered idly while rifling through Sirius's clothing drawers in search of where he'd left his father's old wand.

"You're not leaving this house tonight, Regulus," Kreacher shouted. "You're going to make yourself sick again! And _don't_ you think we're done talking about what happened in the dining room."

Regulus whirled around, slipping on the very glove Kreacher had given him for his eleventh birthday. With a flick of his wrist, he secured the old wand inside it.

"Oh I think we're quite done talking," he said coldly.

Kreacher's eyes narrowed. "What did you find, Regulus?" he asked. "In the library, while you were searching for information on the Rising Dark Lord. What. Did. You. Find?"

A low growl escaped Regulus's throat. "Not a lot, Kreacher, just some letters inside one of Father's reference books. Letters protected by a Black security spell _reeking_ of your magic signature, so ones I think it's highly likely you would know all about."

Kreacher shook his head feebly. "I do not know what you're talking about."

"Who's lying now?" hissed Regulus. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kreacher balled his hands into fists. It was no use now. Frantically he tried to think of something to say. Anything to keep Regulus from activating that damn portkey around his neck…

"Because it would have put you in a state like this! Regulus they're just letters, nothing's carved in stone. Sirius is his own person, and if he doesn't want anything to do with Them then he won't—"

"—no," Regulus cut him off. "We're talking about _my parents._ When they want something, they'll get it. They always do. Mind games, blackmail, torture, whatever, it's all fair game! And if they want to send Sirius off to train as one of His followers, then they'll _make_ it happen."

"That's not the message those letters contained," argued Kreacher. He took a step closer to Regulus. "They only said your parents had promised Sirius's betrothal to Andromeda, and that they would send him as their heir to live in Black Manor when he turns sixteen and the arranged marriage becomes legal."

"To the _manor_," Regulus spat. "To spend the years leading up to his marriage with Mother's brother, _Cygnus?_ It's no secret where his affiliations lie or what goes on in that home. He's one of the Dark Lord's henchmen."

"You don't know that—"

"—and Mother and Father are giving Sirius to him. I won't let them, Kreacher. With or without your help, I will _make_ them think he's not worth their time, that their mind tricks won't work on him!"

"So they'll send you to your death instead?" screamed Kreacher.

Regulus's eyes were alight with triumph. "So you admit it," he exclaimed. "You admit their goal is to shove Sirius into the Dark crowd."

"Sirius can fend for himself," Kreacher insisted. "I won't have you going in his stead. Lay off this crazy notion, Regulus."

"I order you not to tell my parents of my ruse."

"Their orders overrule yours, Regulus," Kreacher admitted in a flat voice.

"Oh? And were they planning on ordering you to divulge all the information about me they'd never know you knew?"

"I could tell them to ask," argued Kreacher.

"But you won't," Regulus said emphatically, yanking his portkey necklace out from beneath his robes. "I know you won't, because you want to let me make my own decisions as well, and I am _deciding _to do this. I care for my brother more than I care about any other human being. I will not let anything bad happen to him. I don't care that he doesn't love me half as much as I do him, I don't care what happens to me in the process. If this is what I do with my life, so be it. Sirius is mine, and my parents _can't_ have him!"

Kreacher lunged forward but too late. Regulus activated his portkey and vanished from sight, leaving the house elf to thud to the floor where had previously stood one of the craziest Blacks to be born yet—and that was saying something.

* * *

><p>Regulus landed crumpled against the wall of a building somewhere in the thick of Hogsmeade. People walked past him unconcerned as he slid to the ground, panting.<p>

The sun had long since set, and the moon was high in the sky, only days from full and nearly as bright as a floodlight. Regulus eyed it despondently while he gathered the energy to stand up.

He didn't know why he had come here, other than the fact that this was the only place his portkey was coded to go to. Why had he left Grimmauld at all? After that display of emotion at dinner, his parents would surely be looking for him. Once again he had acted too quickly and his lack of forethought had likely screwed everything up. Slowly, he dragged himself into a standing position.

As he made his way down the little street, a fair share of villagers noticed him. His glare sent most of them hustling away, though, and he was able to walk with determination to the outskirts of town. Straight up to the north, just a little speck of light on the horizon, was the castle.

Regulus didn't want to go there, though. He turned his gaze a little westwards, towards the Forbidden Forest. Not wanting to deal with any other villagers tonight, or the mazelike hallways of Hogwarts for that matter, Regulus set a brisk pace towards the distant line of trees, his scowl slowly morphing into a dejected frown.

The walk took him an hour, according to his dubiously reliable wristwatch, and it managed to calm his nerves a little.

What am I doing? He thought to himself as he neared the forest grounds. There are mass murderers hidden in these trees…

Was he hoping to run into those two men again? Surely not, even he wouldn't be so careless, but a part of him was eagerly excited every time a small crack sounded like a twig snapping beneath a boot, or a rustle seemed to be caused by robes scraping past tree trunks…

Perhaps Kreacher had been right. Maybe he was a little suicidal…

No, just starved for action, he told himself.

The next sound he heard was unsettling like a slightly muffled human voice.

He skidded to a halt and turned to the side. "Who's there?" he whispered, taking out his wand. Immediately he cursed himself. What good would drawing attention to himself do?

Cautiously, he clambered his way through the underbrush until he tumbled out onto a different path, closer to the sound he had heard. Still hoping vainly for a lost Hogwarts student or a talkative centaur, he debated with himself whether or not to light his wand. In the end he decided there was still enough moonlight filtering down through the tree branches and proceeded semi-blind.

And through it all he felt a little excited…

The clearing he happened upon a moment later bore a strong resemblance to the one he had encountered with Lily the previous year…right down to the two, now masked, men standing next to a small, crackling fire.

Just as it had the previous time, Regulus's body froze. He began to shake and nearly dropped his wand. Now that they were not fifty feet away from him, he remembered why a second run-in with these men had not been on his to-do list.

They were busy with something, making a fuss and working with ropes. Regulus couldn't see past the broad one's back, and their muttering—nothing but a constant stream of obscenities—didn't offer too many context clues.

But then they shifted a little, and to his horror, Regulus caught a glimpse of a person, slumped unconscious and tied up to within an inch of their life.

Without rational though, Regulus raised his wand arm. He didn't even have to say the spell…a rock, somewhere a ways off from the clearing, exploded with a bang.

The two men jumped and looked frantically around. Regulus slid behind a tall tree.

"G—go see what that was," the small one insisted.

The larger man left with a grunt, ordering his comrade to stay behind and keep an eye out. He marched off into the underbrush with his wand out.

Regulus waited until he was out of sight. Then he stepped out from behind cover and raised his wand again. With their victim knocked out, and therefore unlikely to flee, Regulus hoped he could lure the second masked man away, too.

He needed to be silent this time so the first didn't come running back. With a whispered incantation he'd picked up from a book somewhere and honestly never thought he'd use, Regulus sent spiraling from his wand four misty trails of gleaming light. They circled the clearing and collided briefly with the Death Eater before whipping off in the direction opposite to the path the first man had taken.

Death Eater number Two didn't even debate with himself. He swatted confusedly at the lights when they hit him, and immediately set off after them when they disappeared, as if to be certain nothing that aggravated him got away unscathed.

This left the clearing empty. With crazed eyes, and his body shaking from an obvious adrenaline high, Regulus sprinted forward, keenly aware that the men could be back at any moment.

The hostage had landed face down on the ground. Regulus threw himself down and with a wrist-cracking snap, turned his wand briefly into a knife. Frantically, he began to cut at the ropes, sawing, pulling, and breathing in short rasps. Multiple times he cut himself and when he had finally done enough to successfully pull the person out of their bindings, he rolled them over onto their back.

For a moment, he stared dumbly. Then his brain started working again and he gasped in surprise, his knife slipping from his hand and hitting the forest floor, turning quickly back into a wand.

"…Lily?"


	10. 0 With Reckless Abandon

"Lily?" Regulus whispered again in disbelief. His mind was in overload. What would have happened if he hadn't decided to go wandering into the forest? How had the men nabbed Lily without anyone noticing? _Why_ had they bothered to take Lily hostage at all? Did anyone know she was gone?

And most importantly, _how_ was he going to get her out of here? Regulus didn't know how to revive people and Lily was out cold, with a faint, diluted glow about her that suggested she wasn't waking up naturally anytime soon. He couldn't carry her; he just wasn't strong enough for that. He groaned realizing the only practical method was to levitate her or make her lighter. He couldn't very well drag her along the forest floor after all…but with how unstable his wand was that was just asking for serious trouble.

Through all the buzzing in his head Regulus could also hear Kreacher's faint voice, a little excited and more than a little disbelieving…_Regulus! You've made a FRIEND._

"Okay," he said, straightening up. "Uh…sorry about this, Lily." He took a firm hold of her left bicep with both of his hands and dragged her across the rocky undergrowth in what looked like a promising direction. He let go of her after going about forty feet and stood up, panting and sweating.

"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered. He didn't have a lot of time. He could no longer see the original clearing and his ears were ringing so badly he could hardly hear his own haggard breathing, let alone the forest around him; the two men could be back right now for all he knew.

Pointing his wand at the ground he murmured _wingardium leviosa_ at a nearby rock. It was slightly different than the spell needed to lift a human, but he was thinking if he could pull it off on a rock without a hitch then maybe it would be safe to try on Lily.

The rock, however, exploded with a muted _thud_ and left a six inch hole indented into the ground. A brief shower of dirt and gravel rained down on Regulus and Lily. Regulus shook with exasperation. Of all the moments for his wand to malfunction so badly! It must be all the excitement on his part, but all told he could not risk trying anything on his friend after _that._

Friend…

Regulus shook himself fiercely. "Okay," he mouthed quietly. "We can work with this…_mobilicorpus!_" He whispered the spell as loudly as he dared and flung his wand downward. Another unstable bolt of magic shot out and widened the hole considerably so it was now almost a foot deep and several feet wide. Regulus coughed as more dirt flew into his face and belatedly realized he should have turned Lily's body over so she was facing away from all this.

Regulus worked in a frenzy until he had a hole large enough. Then he grabbed Lily's arm again with one hand and with the other slid several fingers through the belt loop in her jeans. He pulled gently and tried to lower her into the hole slowly but she still got banged around a little, making him cringe. Covered from head to foot in grime himself, Regulus pushed most of the loose dirt and rocks back into the hole until all but Lily's upturned face was lightly buried. He then crept off to the side and pushed at the surrounding underbrush and loose branches to successfully hide her face from view as well.

Suddenly too scared again to even breath, Regulus left Lily—for all intents and purposes dead and buried—and slowly stumbled away. When he could stand it no more he started to walk briskly until somewhere not too far to his left he could hear muted voices and then he all-out sprinted. He ran in a straight line until he burst out of the final stretch of woods and landed spread-eagle on the trimmed Hogwarts lawn, almost convulsing with adrenaline.

Before dragging himself up again he took out his wand. He pined a little, wishing he'd thought to yank a branch off a tree but there was no way he was taking a single step back towards that forest alone. Hastily he shook his wand a little and it began to glow faintly, like a sick, little fairy. He shoved it tip-first into the ground to mark where he was. Lily was a (mostly) straight walk into the forest from this entrance point. Then he got up, fell back down, got up again, and staggered towards the castle's entrance doors without the slightest hint of a plan.

He hadn't made it halfway before he heard the shouting. Filled with more dread than he would have liked to admit, Regulus turned his body around to look behind him. The smaller of the two men was less than twenty yards away, close enough that Regulus could see the tears in his nice cloak, and the disheveled look about his hair and clothing. His face wasn't visible, though; he had slipped his mask back on.

Regulus felt like he was five years old. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be _inside._ Scary things couldn't usually get you if you were in the house, even less so if you were under the covers, and their chances dwindled to zero if those covers happened to belong to your older brother. Regulus turned on his heel and fled with a final burst of energy he never would have guessed he had.

The entrance doors, like many areas of the Hogwarts castle, were quite intelligent, though. Sensing the obvious malicious intent of Regulus's adult pursuer, they sealed and bolted themselves shut, leaving the youngest Black child to crash into them impotently and rattle the handles before groaning in defeat and sinking to his knees on the grass.

He felt the ground vibrating as the death eater's footsteps got closer. He was seconds away from a hand reaching out to grab him…and the voice that infiltrated his mind this time was Sirius's. Loud and condescending as usual, Regulus could hear his brother berate him.

_Regs, you goddam idiot. Use your portkey!_

* * *

><p>Everyone in Sirius's dorm was asleep save for him. He sat up in his bed, still fully clothed, fidgeting with the little orb in his hand. He really didn't want to look at it but a part of him was curious. How was Regulus getting on lately? Sirius had sent his brother no Christmas or New Year's gift, despite having received very nice ones from the boy. Hell, he was wearing the t-shirt Regulus had sent him for his birthday at that very moment.<p>

In his hands he held his Spying Stone (as he was now calling it). Should he look at Regulus or not…?

To his right he heard a slight rustle as Lupin rolled over in his sleep, knocking to the ground some newspaper articles he'd been reading before he'd fallen unconscious. Sirius turned back to his stone.

Why couldn't he just cut Regulus off once and for all? He was at school now, away from his family. He had friends, more or less, and a future ahead of him that didn't include his suffocating parents, or that oppressive home.

He did not care what Regulus did, he did _not._

Sirius finally caved and held the marble up to his face to examine it. In it he would surely find Regulus sound asleep at Grimmauld Place, a glass of cider on his nightstand, and all his covers tucked in neatly.

That wasn't the sight that greeted him, though. Abruptly he yanked his wand out of his dresser drawer and stood up. "Lumos," he muttered, holding his wand close to the stone to better see the image it contained.

There was Regulus, all right, but he appeared to be on Hogwarts grounds. Sirius seethed at the thought, he had _told_ his brother to stay put! Regulus had always been so good at listening to him before…had one semester away really undone a decade's worth of conditioning?

Aside from that, though, he could see Regulus was struggling with someone: a man. Whoever it was had a hold of Regulus by his necklace, and was shaking him. Again and again Regulus's head slammed into the entrance door.

Sirius acted without thinking. He stowed the stone back in his drawer and threw on shoes and a jacket. He was inches from the door when a sleepy voice inquired:

"Sirius? Where are you going?"

Sirius froze. "Out, Lupin," he whispered curtly. "Don't wake everyone."

"What's wrong?" Lupin sat up and pulled back his curtains. He had been sleeping amongst an entire sea of newspapers and periodicals.

"Nothing—"

"Sirius!"

"My br—that kid is back," Sirius caught himself. "He's here on the grounds and so are those men."

"The ones from before?" asked Lupin incredulously. "How do you know this?"

Sirius thought fast. "I saw them from out the window," he pointed fiercely at the window between his and James's bed.

Lupin got up and peered out the glass pane. "I can't see them…are you sure that you did? The ground is awfully far down…"

"Yes," Sirius snarled. "They're fighting. Now I'm going down there to get that brat out of trouble."

He made to leave but Lupin, now with a jacket and shoes half-hazardly thrown on as well, leapt forward to grab his arm. Sirius reeled at the physical contact.

"I'm coming with you!" he gulped nervously, but his voice was determined.

"I don't want you to!" hissed Sirius.

"I've been researching for Lily!" Lupin insisted. "Believe me when I say you're going to need me!"

"Fine!" Sirius barked, the pounding in his head reminding him of Regulus's small skull crashing repeatedly against the side of the castle. "Do whatever the hell you want, just don't get in my way!"

Lupin nodded, for the moment at least not seeming to question Sirius's vehemence on the subject.

Sirius tore from the dorm, Lupin close behind him. It was a miracle no one had woken up during their whispered argument, but Sirius had a horrible feeling that wouldn't last long.

"Should we get a teacher?" Lupin panted nervously as he sprinted just behind Sirius.

"You can," he hissed as they clattered down the stairs, unmindful of where they ran or how much noise they made. Even if a teacher heard them, they certainly weren't going to be able to catch them. "I'm not stopping for that. You know it'll take half an hour to even get them to consider looking outside…"

…not to mention Sirius would have to admit he'd stolen from the trophy cabinet. No teacher would believe he'd seen two distinct figures on the castle grounds through the window in the topmost tower _in the middle of the night._

Lupin didn't even consider. He'd asked his question more out of obligation. "You can't go alone," he insisted.

Sirius crashed up against the castle doors and threw them open—nothing at Hogwarts locked from the inside, after all—and he saw them immediately. Somehow his brother had managed to wriggle free of his captor and staggered to his feet, but he appeared to be unarmed, and the man grabbed ahold of him again. A second man was sprinting up to them, this one much larger than the first.

"Greyback," the skinny man hissed, holding Regulus by his neck and arms. He seemed not to have noticed Sirius and Lupin just yet. "Look, it's the one who had the photo!"

The second man, Greyback, pointed furiously behind his comrade, right at Sirius and Lupin.

"Fuck!" the first man fumbled for his wand while Greyback surged forward. It was at a price, though. Letting go of Regulus with one hand allowed the child to get free, and he wasted no time in landing as hard a punch as he could.

Sirius was poised to meet Greyback head on, wand at the ready, but Lupin had been prepared for this.

"Go get Regulus," he insisted, pushing Sirius to the side. Greyback's unusually large teeth were already starting to come out, and his eyes slitted dangerously.

Sirius yanked his brother out of the fray so he could clearly aim at his target. He had a few second's head start on the man and got the first spell fired off.

Lupin tried valiantly to keep Greyback away from him, but his stunners and meager combat spells seemed to bounce right off the man, and eventually he found himself face to face with someone he'd hoped to never see again.

Sirius could vaguely hear the tears and growling coming from the scuffle going on behind him, but ultimately ignored it. Lupin had chosen to come along; it was his own fault what happened to him. Despite having vastly more knowledge of dueling than most students in his year, Sirius knew he would be no match for an adult in the end. What mattered was that he'd gotten to Regulus before he'd been killed or seriously injured. Regulus now needed to take the hint and go get help.

"Regulus, get out of here!" Sirius screamed at him while throwing up a temporary shield in front of himself.

Regulus started to turn away but was hit almost instantly with a binding spell from Sirius's opponent. "He's not going anywhere," the man hissed. Then he looked back to Sirius. "Is that your little brother?" he asked, pointing to Sirius's face and then to Regulus's. "Well he's stolen something of our master's."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius yelled honestly. "Regulus?" he demanded.

"I have no idea!" Regulus cried pathetically from the ground. He struggled, but managed to position himself on his knees. Pleadingly he looked at the fighting going on around him. "I don't have anything of anyone's, really! I just came here on impulse and when I saw they'd taken Lily—"

"Lily?" demanded Sirius. "What's she got to do with anything? Protego!" he cried again just in time to mitigate the shock of a nasty curse, although it still sent him skidding back a few feet with an audible _thud._

Regulus wriggled frantically on the ground. Sirius wasn't going to last much longer like this, and Lupin was in even worse shape, pinned to the ground by a half-transformed werewolf. With effort, Regulus managed to loop his bound wrists around his legs so they were in front of him now, and no longer behind his back. Mindlessly he fumbled for his portkey, already starting to yell before he'd even landed.

Sirius stared in shock at the empty space that had previously held his brother. How had Regulus disappeared like that? Where had he gotten such a device? His momentary bewilderment proved detrimental, and he was sent careening backwards by his opponent.

"Shit," he sputtered when he hit the ground. He rolled sharply to the left to avoid the next jet of purple light sent towards him. It left a half-foot wide smoking hole in the ground where it connected. The next spell hit him square in the stomach and he doubled over, groaning.

"Sirius?" an incredulous voice demanded.

Sirius raised his head and opened his watering eyes just long enough to see a familiar figure running head long towards him from the castle door: James Potter. The Death Eater standing over him took the time to notice James as well, and Sirius used a final surge of energy to kick him in the knee, knocking him to the ground.

"Stupefy!" James yelled. The spell didn't stick the first time, merely careening off the kneeling man, but a second attempt was more successful. The Death Eater keeled face first into the ground.

Sirius staggered upright and James immediately turned his attention to Remus and Greyback, who were still more or less fighting hand to hand. Greyback had torn a good chunk out of Remus's arm and shoulder, and there was blood on the ground. Sirius noted with approval that some of it was stemming from Greyback's own twisted nose. Remus must have landed at least one good punch during the scuffle.

Greyback was a horrifying sight. Sirius realized with a creeping dread that the man must be a werewolf of some kind, and though the full moon was not for days, he had managed to semi-transform himself. His mouth jutted out too far and his canine teeth had developed into fangs. He was hunched over and his nails were sticking at least a quarter inch into the skin of Remus's neck and chest. Remus had since gone limp in his grasp.

Sirius and James raised their wands, Sirius a little unsteady on his feet. With his free hand, he clutched at his stomach were the other Death Eater's spell had struck. It came away sticky with blood.

Greyback wasn't taking any chances. It seemed the body of his fallen comrade had sobered him to the revelation that he may lose this fight. He straightened up and took Remus with him, holding the boy by his neck in front of him like a shield.

James shook. "We heard you two leaving the dorms and I followed you," he explained to Sirius in a whisper out the side of his mouth. "Peter went to get a teacher. I came here."

Sirius grimaced. He was silent for a moment, expecting James to understand his intentions, but when the other Gryffindor merely stood by his side, shaking, Sirius was again infuriated that his classmate did not know him so well as his brother. Regulus would have understood. Regulus would have gotten the hint, but here Sirius was forced to whisper back, and pray the werewolf couldn't hear him.

"We need to distract him until they get here, then," he said. "Regulus left for help as well."

"Regulus was here?"

"What do you want?" Sirius intoned loudly, hoping to delay Greyback's decision-making process.

"Our master's relic," he hissed simply. "Your little girlfriend had it at one point, and so did that other brat. We were sent here to get it, and keeping it from us," he paused to slide several of his embedded nails and inch or two higher up Remus's throat. "Is not a wise decision."

Sirius could see that the man was panicking, despite his cool demeanor. He had obviously not intended for this to devolve into a fight. He had probably been planning on sneaking in and out of the school undetected, _relic_ in hand.

"Girlfriend?" repeated James dumbly.

"Lily," Sirius explained, his wand wavering as he felt the last of his energy draining. Unable to stand anymore, he sank to his knees on the grassy lawn. All around him the small lights from the castle and the stars seemed to grow brighter. Beside him, James quivered.

Greyback smirked. The only consolation was that the rise and fall of Remus's chest was still strong.

"What could Lily possibly have that you would want?" asked James desperately.

"Nothing for you to worry your head over, now put down the wand," Greyback commanded, twisting his hand hard. More blood ran down Remus's neck. Sensing few other options, James slowly lowered his arm and let his wand fall to the grass next to Sirius, who seemed barely conscious.

"Good job," said Greyback. "Now—"

But his didn't make it any further than that. With a startled cry he was sent careening forward and toppled to the ground, completely dropping Remus in the process. Behind where he had been standing, a now bloodied rock in her hand, was Lily, covered in dirt and scratches from her neck down.

Greyback wasn't unconscious, though, and soon whipped around to face her. Quickly she backed away as he surged forward. She threw her rock right in his face, striking him between the eyes and making him yelp in a manner eerily similar to a dog, but it didn't deter him for long.

"Stupefy!" he was inches from her when he fell with a _crash_ to the ground. Lily whipped her tangled head around and saw two adults and a child rushing up to her. It was a man and a woman, and behind them came Regulus Black, limping but otherwise unharmed.

The man pushed Lily roughly out of the way and stepped unceremoniously over Lupin. "Sirius," he barked roughly, and tugged Sirius up from the ground. Sirius's eyes were starting to roll back in his head.

The woman glanced behind her and when she noticed Regulus, screeched, "Regulus! You were told to stay at home!"

Regulus pushed past her and rushed to his brother's side. Lily and James heard little of this exchange between the two Blacks as they had both fallen to Remus's side and were staring horrified at how much blood he had lost.

When Lily looked up she saw the man had Sirius in his arms and the woman had dashed up to the caste, meeting headlong a swarm of teachers led by Peter Pettigrew. She began talking furiously with them.

"Where did you come from, Lily?" Sirius mumbled weakly. "Thought we were finished."

"Yes," Regulus asked her, although his eyes were still on Sirius as he gently wiped blood and grime from his brother's face. "How did you wake yourself up?"

Lily shrugged. "He," she pointed to the skinny Death Eater. "Had me under some sort of stasis spell, I think; I heard a little of it before I went under. It must have lost its effect when he was knocked out. I woke up buried in the forest, and I could hear you guys yelling…"

"That was me that buried you," said Regulus sheepishly. "I couldn't think of what else to do, and I couldn't just leave you there."

"Thank you," remarked Lily honestly. "And is this yours? I saw it lit up and it led me out of the woods," she pulled from her jeans Regulus's wand.

Orion's eyes narrowed and he snatched it from her. Lily started to protest. "Hey, what do you think you're doing, Mister? That's my friend's!"

Orion didn't grace her with an answer. He merely jerked Sirius away from Regulus and started towards the castle. Lily watched him go before kneeling back down by Remus.

Soon everyone was congregated together. One by one, a multitude of lights flickered on in the castle. It seemed the whole school was waking up.

Peter had brought with him McGonagall, Dumbledore, Tektite, and Slughorn. McGonagall gently pushed Lily aside and rolled Remus onto his back.

"Is he going to be okay?" demanded James softly. The teacher nodded.

"Yes I'm sure of it," she muttered, closing as many wounds as she could with her own wand. Lily watched in awe as the skin healed and the blood dried. "But he needs to be in the hospital."

James nodded.

Dumbledore had the two Death Eaters' limp bodies restrained. "Summon the Ministry, Tektite," he commanded. "It seems we have several most unwelcome guests. As for you two," he addressed James and Lily. "You will accompany Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black to the hospital wing. When they are fully awake and alert we are going to discuss what went on here, is that clear?"

James and Lily nodded mutely, and they proceeded to follow McGonagall as she solemnly levitated Remus's body towards the school. A slow but steady trail of blood still fell from him.

"And you as well, Mr. Black, I believe you have a place in these proceedings as well," said Dumbledore quietly. Regulus, who had been slinking off to the edge of all the commotion now that he had been assured Sirius was in no mortal peril, started.

He looked up at Professor Dumbledore quizzically. The man was wearing a sickeningly periwinkle nightgown and a pair of bright red slippers. Regulus was hardly threatened by him, and had every intent to sneer a little before apparating away again, until he met the Headmaster's eyes.

"I don't think I should be present, Sir," he murmured with his eyes down.

"Have you not had an enormous impact on the events of this evening?"

Regulus looked up at him pleadingly. "I really haven't," he insisted. "I know nothing about what was going on, I was only here just tonight," he knew Dumbledore would see through his lie unless immediately distracted and so opted to quickly mutter, "and I can't stay any longer. I'll just cause damage if I do. None of his new friends know my last name."

He looked forlornly in the direction of his brother. Dumbledore seemed to understand what he was saying. "That is such a shame, Regulus," he said sadly. "Because you are such a good brother, and you do deserve that back."

It was the first time in his life that Regulus had ever heard someone praise him for how much he cared for Sirius. After years of being ignored by his parents and having his fraternal obsession deemed insane by Kreacher, it was something that hit home.

Regulus let this man's alternate opinion on him sink in for a minute. Then he walked briskly away. "Send me an owl with the details of my brother's recovery," he said over his shoulder.

"Of course, and Regulus?"

"Yes?" Regulus paused briefly.

"It is not a common occurrence for a student not yet enrolled in my school to break so many rules in one semester."

"I expect there to be a trophy with my name on in it fully engraved by this fall," Regulus replied snarkily. Then, when Dumbledore had finally turned from him to engage the other teachers, he grabbed his portkey once again and returned to Grimmauld Place. There his adrenaline high would wear off and he could fully process what had taken place up at the school, all while Kreacher yelled his ear off for running off twice in one night.

Sirius was only partially awake while his father carried him, drifting in and out of the waking world every hundred yards or so. He went out completely just before being set down on his hospital bed, only to be woken fully an hour or so later by a combination of medicine, spellwork, and the really loud noise he heard which turned out to be James accidentally knocking over a chair.

"Mr. Black, how are you feeling?" asked Professor Tektite, who was closest.

"Like shit," Sirius answered, sitting up. "Everything hurts."

"You were hit with some nasty curses," commented the nurse as she smoothed down a bandage on his arm. "But the worst of it's been eradicated now. You just need to rest for a little while, and get used to having a bit of a scar on your tummy."

"I'll just tell everyone I had a C-section," Sirius quipped. James and Lily, who were sitting on the foot of his bed, laughed. None of the adults looked pleased. Dumbledore, Tektite and McGonagall were all there. Slughorn had disappeared, and Sirius's parents were nowhere to be seen.

"Your mother and father went back home," answered Dumbledore keenly, seeming to know what Sirius had been wondering. "To deal with some…other disobedience issues."

Sirius cringed at the Headmaster's subtle way of saying his parents had gone home to lay into Regulus. Sirius also noted how Dumbledore had avoided mentioning his connection to his brother in front of his friends. When he looked into the man's eyes he saw quite a lot of disappointment, but not enough to move him.

"Oh," was all he said, and Dumbledore's disappointment seemed to increase.

"I would like an explanation," the school's leader continued. "There are aurors and Ministry officials right now interrogating two criminals who, for the moment, have refused to divulge any information about why or how they broke into my school. And I feel it may take all of you to explain this. Poppy, is Mr. Lupin awake and coherent?"

"Yes," came a small voice from the bed next to Sirius. Sirius swiveled around to see Remus Lupin sitting up and smiling woefully at them all. "I'm awake," he admitted.

"Good," said Professor McGonagall. "Then let's get this over with."

"It was my fault," offered Lily immediately. "I was the one wandering around outside at night. They ambushed me just outside the gate and dragged me into the forest. They kept asking me where I'd hidden their thing-a-ma-jigger, but I've no idea what it was they were looking for. I guess I didn't have it on me, either, because they searched all my pockets and then knocked me out. I woke up when everyone was fighting and went to help."

"So this is the first of these men you have seen?" inquired Professor Tektite.

"Yes," said Lily earnestly.

"I heard the commotion of Lily getting dragged away because I was awake and had the window's slid open for some fresh air. I thought she was just messing around with some friends because the noises weren't very clear. I was bored and thought I'd go join the fun," said Sirius nonchalantly, having caught on fairly quickly to Lily's plan.

"Him leaving woke me up," said Lupin simply. "And I followed him the whole way outside trying to convince him not to break curfew. I guess I wasn't very good at it," he added ruefully.

"And you slammed the door too loudly," said James smugly. "I heard them leave and followed out of pure curiosity. Peter had more sense than me, though, and said he was going off to find some teachers in case something was up…where'd Peter go anyway?"

"I sent him to his dorm to rest," explained Professor Dumbledore. He was the only one of you not bleeding all over my hallways and thus the least culpable in all this. I will most likely be speaking with him a bit later, though I doubt he will have much more to add to your story."

Professor McGonagall seemed unconvinced by them all. "It seems to me that something is being left out of all this. What of the other boy?"

Sirius began to sweat. McGonagall was looking right at him. Before he could say anything damning, though, Lily saved him again. "Regulus is a friend of mine from outside school," she admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "He'd been talking about meeting up with me sometime here, but I didn't believe him when he said he'd be on the grounds tonight. I thought he was kidding and that I was going to wander around all alone for several hours before going back to bed. Which almost happened. Regulus was the one who got me away from those freaks."

"So you were outside tonight to meet up with him?" inquired Professor Tektite incredulously.

Lily looked unblinkingly up at her Astronomy professor. "Yes," she said. "He said getting into the castle itself would be nearly impossible with all the spells and security it's got."

Tektite nodded, not so much convinced as worn out with the conversation.

"And none of you have any idea what these men were looking for? Did they describe it to you at all, Ms. Evans?"

"No," argued Lily. "They just kept acting like I should know already. I think they are insane," she added so seriously that it forced a smile onto McGonagall's face.

"Headmaster," interrupted the nurse from behind Lupin. "If I might ask that these children be allowed to rest now? I don't think you're getting very far with this interrogation."

"You may be right," said Dumbledore, standing up carefully. "If there is anything else you feel we should know, don't hesitate," he looked at them all sternly.

All of the students save for Sirius fidgeted uncomfortably.

"No one is being expelled," reassured Dumbledore. "To do so would be a grave error on my part, and detention would make little sense with the school year being over."

"Huh?" asked James and Lily at the same time.

"It's February!" Lupin exclaimed.

"Not according to the weather, which has been uncharacteristically warm and devoid of snow," said Dumbledore simply. "Besides, there are some updates to the school's security that clearly need to be addressed and will take quite some amount of man-power and time. Also I appear to be lacking a Defense Teacher."

"Where is Professor—"

"Andrew decided teaching wasn't really his calling and sent in his resignation to me just this evening. He seemed awfully jumpy about it," responded Dumbledore casually.

The students shared uneasy looks. In Sirius's mind, and likely everyone else's, such a fast and timely resignation most likely signaled some kind of affiliation with the two Death Eaters who were now being interrogated at the Ministry.

But was he running because he'd worked for them or against them?

"I suggest you all get some sleep," said Professor Tektite curtly. "We can't have you all tired for the feast tomorrow. Goodnight you four. You are a very lucky, very selfless child," he added with a stern look towards Lupin.

"G'night," they murmured in unison, Lupin in particular looking sheepish.

The hospital door hadn't been closed for ten seconds before Severus Snape came bursting in, panting and clutching his chest.

"Severus!" Lily exclaimed, getting up to guide him onto the bed next to Sirius's. There they sat down together, joined soon by James, who seemed to think Sirius might break if anyone stayed too close to him."

"I heard…" he panted.

"Shush," Lily hushed him. "Here, we'll take it from the top."

Everyone leaned forward.

"I went outside tonight because I saw those two freaks again."

"And you didn't think to get us?" demanded Severus.

"Well I wasn't sure of what I was seeing and I didn't want them to slip away," Lily snipped. "Anyway, I was only going to get a snapshot of them with my camera, you know, for photo comparisons. I was standing with the main door propped open and I got my photo. It was a little grainy from having to zoom for far in, but the door managed to swing shut behind me, and then the castle wouldn't let me back in!"

"Those two death eaters were probably too close for comfort and the school locked itself," Remus offered by way of explanation.

"Well it's a shitty system, either way," Lily griped. "Those bastards heard the door slamming and immediately cornered me. It was two against one, I didn't really manage to put up much of a fight, although I loosened the big one's nose for you Lupin...broke my new camera in the process..."

Remus smiled a little.

"Well it turns out they'd been looking for me, like…stalking me. By the way they were talking, they'd been trying to get me alone for months, but hadn't figured out how to do it yet without bursting into the school itself. They were looking for me because they'd happened upon one of the pictures Regulus took of me. The one in that Room of Forgotten Things where I'm wearing some sort of tiara."

"They're after a tiara?" James asked in confusion. "And how'd they get the photo?"

"Regulus...dropped it out the window..." Sirius said slowly.

"Yeah, a tiara," Lily shrugged. Severus leaned his head on her shoulder and whimpered a little. "I don't know why but they really wanted the fucking thing."

"Should we have told Dumbledore this?" asked Remus nervously. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Madame Pomfrey had not returned from her office, where she had retired to when the teachers had left.

Lily shook her head. "And admit to everything?"

"What difference does it make," scoffed Sirius. "The men are in jail, they didn't get what they wanted. End of story," although he said the words mainly to shut Lupin up.

"Wow," breathed Severus. "What an ordeal. Tell me how you got away from them…"

They filled Severus in on all the details, but before any talking after that could go down, their exhaustion caught up with them all, even Sirius, and they fell asleep almost in unison.

Sirius's final thoughts fell to his brother. He had tried so hard this year to distance himself from Regulus, and his family as a whole for that matter, but now it seemed that fate itself—and the Headmaster—had aligned against this plan, giving him three extra months of summer break to spend alone with Regulus Black.

_Regulus, you have so much explaining to do._

**End Section 0.**


	11. 1 Anxiety in the Attic

**Look who finally remembered to update her main story! Now officially on to the 'second' section.**

Ch. 11: Anxiety in the Attic

There had been a grand total two week delay between Regulus and company nearly being shredded by one Fenrir Greyback and the entire school being carted home for an extremely early summer vacation. Regulus's brother was returned to him as the first week of March drew to a dreary close. Despite one more bought with unconsciousness, a newfound aversion to sitting on hard surfaces, and a shiny new lock on his bedroom door, Regulus had faired quite well during the fallout. When Sirius returned to Grimmauld Place, expecting to find Regulus beaten to a pulp and smeared into the carpet, he was taken slightly aback to notice him not only whole and healthy, but relatively happy as well.

Regulus certainly was livelier than he had allowed himself to be for a while. Now that Sirius was under the same roof again, it was as though the last seven months had never happened and time had been reset the final days of August prior. Although admittedly Regulus did approach his brother with due caution the evening the latter arrived home from school. His parents had naturally forbidden him from coming with them to the station and so he stood anxiously in the hallway, fidgeting and waiting for them to return with Sirius. When they did, Regulus's father walked right past him and into the drawing room, saying nothing, while his mother carried Sirius's trunk upstairs to his room for him. Regulus waited five additional seconds after their departures before skittering over to Sirius and glancing up at him nervously.

Sirius had had some time to think the last few days, and being home again was having a profound effect on him as well. He felt as though he had slipped back into an ocean-esque body of water, and as it closed in over his head the world of Hogwarts seemed duller, fainter, and a million miles away. With a grin he pulled Regulus into a hug and slowly rocked them back and forth.

"You almost got yourself fucking killed," he growled into Regulus's hair while he planted small kisses down the side of his head. "I'd beat the shit out of you if I wasn't so certain Father already has."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Regulus repeated quietly, reveling in the sensation of gently swaying on the spot, enveloped by Sirius's arms. For the first time in a long while he felt safe again, and normal. Everything had finally righted itself in his world, and Sirius could never leave him for so long again because the next fall, he would be going to school as well. "You got hurt, though," he whispered nervously. He still managed to sound concerned, despite Sirius being obviously whole and healthy.

"They patched me up all right at the school," Sirius insisted. He pushed Regulus out at arm's length and seemed to examine him.

"Did they ever figure out what it was that those two men wanted—?"

"They wanted the tiara they saw Lily wearing in one of the photos you dropped out the window."

Regulus's eyes widened.

"What about your friend who got all bitten up…Lupin? Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf; is he going to be infected at all?"

"They're not sure yet," answered Sirius immediately; he looked to be telling the truth. "The healer told us it was highly unlikely, though."

Regulus nodded in approval. "Well, did—"

Sirius cut him off with a light smack to the forehead. "Stop it," he said curtly. "You're being too noisy."

Regulus rubbed his head and looked up at Sirius with a hurt expression on his face. Sirius's gaze softened. "I just don't want you…" he started to explain but trailed off. He shook his head abruptly. "Come on, let's go to the library, all right? I've got to give you your Christmas present. I know it's a little late…"

Regulus let Sirius lead him by the sleeve up two flights of stairs and into the same, musty family library he himself had hidden in so frequently during the past few months.

"What is it?" he asked eagerly.

"I'm going to teach you some of the coolest magic I learned this year," Sirius explained as they filed down the first aisle of books and into the chairs under the east window.

Regulus's eyes lit up. All at once he forgave Sirius for the lateness of his gift, and forgot entirely the fact that this was certainly not something that had been planned, but rather a half-hearted, last minute gesture to make up for not sending so much a Christmas card to Regulus on the actual holiday.

"I don't have a wand, though," Regulus explained sadly. Their father had destroyed the old one Regulus had been using for the last few years.

"You can borrow mine, idiot," Sirius said. "Now come here and sit down while I explain some things…"

The impromptu lesson lasted for hours, well past dinner, and neither of their parents called them down to eat. Kreacher, who had not spoken to Regulus since early that morning, finally ventured to the library to see him, Dante trailing close behind and flicking his tail at all the dust.

Peering around the bookshelf, the elf watched curiously as Sirius helped his brother summon simple items and alter the colors of the drapes and upholstery. It was obvious Regulus already knew most of what he was being taught, but he had a smile on his face like nothing Kreacher had seen, even before Sirius had left for school. Kreacher folded his arms and frowned a little; Dante crouched down at his feet, twitching his whiskers.

It seemed Regulus had deluded himself into thinking Sirius had come back for him.

"He's going to be crushed when they both go to that school and Sirius suddenly doesn't have any time for him," asserted Kreacher. He glanced down at Dante and wondered when he had become so crazy as to talk to a mutated fox.

Dante flopped onto his side and pawed at his face.

The next few weeks passed by comfortably. Regulus poured his heart out to Sirius, telling him everything that had transpired since Sirius had first boarded the Hogwarts Express. He eagerly showed him the portkey locket Kreacher had made and recalled all the research he'd done about Greyback and Voldemort, including a recount of his adventure with León. He let Sirius try on his fancy wand-concealing gloves (much to Kreacher's chagrin. He had made those for _Regulus,_ not his brother. The first time he saw the Black heir proudly donning them it took all his self-restraint to not blast them off his hands). Regulus even told Sirius about the photos he had made for Lily, and how she and he had gone about taking them. There was really only one thing he'd left out—

"Regulus, what's this?" Sirius asked in a voice both curious and frighteningly calm.

It was late evening. The two of them were lounging about in Regulus's room for a change of pace. Regulus was sprawled out over his bedspread poring over one of Sirius's textbooks with Dante curled up between his arms, and Sirius, who had been rummaging around in Regulus's dresser looking for some clothes to sleep in, was now holding up a small, grainy photograph he had found.

"Oh…" Regulus looked sheepishly up at the picture Sirius was now shoving in his face. It was the one of the fox under the tree. Sirius looked from Regulus's panicked face to Dante's pointed one and in an instant seemed to understand. "I just…" Regulus trailed off. He sat up and looked forlornly at Sirius.

"It's late," Sirius grumbled. He scratched at his eyes, they felt itchy for some reason. "I'm going to bed."

"No!" Regulus leaned forward and grabbed him by the sleeve. "Don't go…please, _aniki_, stay here and sleep with me!" He slid Sirius's book onto the nightstand and quickly brushed Dante off onto the floor. "Please!" he pleaded.

Sirius frowned at the half-cat as it scurried under the bed, hissing. He recalled how sickly the fox had seemed in the picture and wondered numbly just how bad of a brother one had to be to wind up replaced by a dying animal.

Yet Regulus had pushed the creature away and was gesturing pitifully for Sirius to join him. Sirius felt the corners of his mouth twitch. Temporarily replaced or not, Sirius was still the top dog in his brother's eyes. Nothing could change that.

Sirius liked to be revered.

"Give me back my book, Regulus," he said crossly. It was best not to spoil Regulus with affection, he'd learned. He preferred to keep Regulus constantly starving for more, he was easier to keep under control that way. How quickly and easily the two of them had slipped back into their normal paradigm, the last few months might truly have never happened for all it showed in their relationship!

Regulus meekly handed it to him. Sirius took it, turned off the bedroom light and left his brother alone, confused, and nearly in tears in the darkness.

Regulus rolled onto his side and didn't bother undressing or getting under the covers. By the light of the gibbous moon shining through the window, Dante clawed his way back onto the bed, and all forgiven, crawled over to Regulus's face and curled up.

* * *

><p>Kreacher felt oddly torn about Sirius's return. On the one hand, having his brother back had curbed Regulus's lust for information. He had completely stopped his snooping into the Dark Lord's affairs and had actually failed to answer the last letter sent to him by his cousin, León.<p>

"I've nothing I really need to ask him," Regulus had explained while Kreacher marveled at him.

However on the flip side, Regulus had fallen back into his previous demeanor, desperate for attention from Sirius and willing to follow him anywhere.

And the two almost always ended up in some kind of trouble. With a few days to go before April reared its rainy head, Kreacher finally discovered where the brothers Black had been disappearing to every evening: the west attic.

When Kreacher ventured into the youngest Black's bedroom carrying his evening cider, Regulus's room was, predictably, empty. With a sigh, Kreacher traipsed to Sirius's room, expecting to find Regulus in there, puppy-dog-eyeing his big brother.

But Sirius's room was empty, too. Perplexed, Kreacher set his tray down and tried to use his brain to divine where Regulus might be.

When Regulus was not in the library, he was just about to give up and alert the child's parents when he heard the crash from above him.

Kreacher didn't waste any time; he apparated to the attic. With a whispering sound, he materialized in one of the back corners, from where he had a good view of Sirius and Regulus.

"Fuck, Regulus, be more careful. You want our parents to hear?" Sirius scolded. Regulus meekly apologized and set the crate he had obviously knocked over back upright.

"Now we need to…" Sirius trailed off with a strange look on his face. "Shit…" he tried to continue but paused to scrunch his nose up again.

"What I am _trying_ to say," Sirius pressed on a moment later. "Is that I need you to—_fuck!"_ Sirius sneezed loudly into the crook of his arm.

Regulus looked at his brother concernedly. Sirius lowered his arm and met Regulus's gaze with watery eyes. "For the last time, Regulus, will you get that bloody thing _out_ of here?"

He pointed angrily to Dante, who had curled up on Regulus's discarded jacket. Regulus picked him up gently. "I could just put him a little farther away," he suggested.

"No," Sirius insisted, looking about to sneeze again. "Get it out!"

Regulus hung his head and trudged to the trapdoor. He kicked it open and stared at the long drop.

"Hurry up," Sirius griped.

"Can I use your wand to lower him down gently?" Regulus asked.

Sirius threw his wand at him.

When Regulus rejoined his brother, Kreacher finally took in what lay on the floor between them: a blueprint of Grimmauld Place, with many rooms and features added in in Sirius's neat pen.

Kreacher could have slapped himself. So the two children had resumed their search for that _hidden torture room_ or whatever it was Regulus had kept banging on about the previous summer.

"Now Regulus," Sirius said sternly. He seemed to have adopted the attitude of a war general, despite the fact that he was sitting criss-cross with his hands in his lap. "You say you made no progress while I was gone?"

Regulus nodded. "That's right," he said quietly.

Sirius glared. "I should hit you for your laziness," he declared.

"But Sirius," Regulus whined. "Father already laid into me good for going up to the school."

"You can't still possibly hurt from that!" Sirius scoffed.

Regulus lay down on his stomach across the map from Sirius. He rolled up one of his sleeves to show a ring of faint but still-visible bruises that snaked up his arm.

Sirius made a face.

"One day I'll kill him," he asserted.

Regulus smiled. "Or we could deal with him in the _Ashoka Room,_ once we find it," he suggested.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And just where did you learn about King Ashoka?" he asked, curious of the nickname Regulus had assigned the hypothetical torture room.

Regulus shrugged. "Been reading."

"Not in our library, surely," Sirius said. "Mummy and Daddy wouldn't _dare _have any _muggle_ books in there."

"Of course not," Regulus's tone was more serious than his brother's, as though he truly considered the idea of a non-magic book in his parent's library to be ludicrous. "I got the book elsewhere. Hey Sirius…We've still one more cellar to check. The East cellar. We were in there before last summer but we got interrupted, remember? I think that should be our goal tomorrow."

Regulus started marking the map with a vibrant green ink and Kreacher realized why he and Sirius were up in the attic in the first place. The box next to Regulus contained a multitude of old quills and special inks. Indeed the ink Regulus had slathered onto the map in front of him was moving and adjusting itself.

Sirius watched the ink form more perfect lines. "I'd like to see the book"

"I don't have it anymore," Regulus said immediately.

"Lie to me again and I'll hit you, Father or no Father."

Regulus bit his lip. "It wouldn't interest you," he insisted.

Sirius stood up and prized open the trapdoor. He was lowering the ladder down when Regulus reached him, his hastily picked-up jacket hanging off one shoulder.

"Sirius, wait—"

Sirius slid down the ladder and Regulus followed. Ever the custodian, Kreacher closed the entry to the attic behind them before following.

Sirius went into Regulus's room and immediately began rummaging through his top drawer, pointedly ignoring Regulus's feeble protests. Dante tried to poke his nose into the room to see what all the fuss was, but Kreacher gently pushed him away. The last thing they needed was Sirius's newly-discovered allergies flaring up on top of everything else.

When Sirius found the history book Regulus had been reading he paid no attention to the cover, and instead of reading any of the pages, flipped immediately to the inside front cover from which he read aloud:

"Property of Lily Evans."

Sirius snapped the books shut and took ahold of Regulus by his collar before he could scamper off.

"You've been _communicating_ with them?" he demanded.

"Y—yes," Regulus stammered. "But just Lily. She sent me the book because she thought I might enjoy it…"

Sirius shook him. "Are you trying to cause trouble?" he demanded. "Lily's not as stupid as she seems. She'll eventually figure out who you are!"

"Is that really such a bad thing?" Regulus asked. "People will know eventually."

"No," Sirius insisted. "They won't. If I have to lie for the next seven years, they won't."

Regulus slipped free of Sirius and stepped back, hanging his head. "I didn't know I was such an embarrassment to you."

Had Sirius's face not softened at that exact moment, Kreacher would have intervened. Sirius pulled Regulus into a gruff hug. "I don't expect you to understand, Regs," he explained. "I just…need to have a place to escape to, where no one knows any of my relatives and I can sort of…start over. That place is school and the friends I have there."

Regulus gave him a very doubtful look.

"Look, we can talk about it later," Sirius continued hastily, perhaps realizing that he wasn't getting his intended message across. "For now just…don't talk to any of my friends, okay?"

Regulus nodded numbly.

"There," Sirius said. "Now don't be sad, you're still my little brother whether anyone knows it or not. Now why don't we go back to my bedroom and play some cards? See if you can get that stupid elf to bring us something to drink."

Regulus smiled, his eyes only a little bit watery, and he and Sirius settled themselves on Sirius's bed, a deck of cards strewn out between them.

"Mother and Father will be gone with the Malfoys for over a week next month," Regulus said later as he shuffled the deck for a rematch. "They'll be leaving us all alone! We can use that time to check their bedrooms for secret passageways, and sneak drinks from Father's wine cellar, don't you think?"

Sirius nodded, but avoided Regulus's eyes.

Regulus dealt him his cards. "Kreacher!" he called. When the elf appeared, Regulus requested, "Can you bring me some more cocoa?"

"Sure," Kreacher nodded. "And some for Master Sirius, too, I suppose…"

"I'm excited to go to school next year," Regulus continued in a rare fit of chatty-ness. "Mostly because it means you won't be leaving me behind again. It was so lonely and miserable here without you. I felt like the house was going to suffocate me!" He laughed at himself.

Sirius nodded. He thought he understood that feeling all too well.

"Sirius?" Regulus asked.

"Mhm?"

"We can be friends at school, right?" he asked nervously. "I mean…I'll get to see you, won't I?"

"Well maybe not so much," Sirius said. "I'll be busy. So will you. You'll make your own friends in Slytherin and—"

"Who says I'll be in Slytherin?" demanded Regulus.

Sirius scoffed. "It's a pretty obvious match, you little serpent," he said.

Regulus pouted. "I could go into the same house as you!" he suggested.

Sirius now looked faintly alarmed. It would be nigh impossible to separate himself from Regulus if they were in the same dorm!

"You're going to be a Slytherin, just trust me."

"But then I won't get to see you as much," Regulus said. He believed his brother's prediction completely, and now sounded heartbroken at its implications.

"Oh calm down," Sirius leaned over and ruffled his hair. "You still got the rest of this summer with me, idiot. We'll have plenty of fun."

Regulus smiled tentatively. "We've used up our score sheet," he pointed out, indicating the full piece of paper on the bed before him. "We need another one before our next round."

"In my top desk drawer," Sirius said, laughing.

Regulus hopped from the bed and pranced to Sirius's desk. He was a few seconds into rummaging around before Sirius realized his mistake.

"Uh, actually there's no scratch paper in there. It's in my…uh…bag, over there…"

He approached Regulus but it was too late. Regulus was holding an unfolded letter in his trembling hands.

"James Potter," he read. "Visiting? You're…going to be at his house…all summer?" Regulus looked up at his brother in shock.

"...But you said _we_ were going to spend time together."

"Regulus—"

"You were lying to me," Regulus said coldly.

"Regulus calm down, I'll see you before term starts."

"When are you leaving?" Regulus asked.

Sirius sighed. "Tomorrow morning."

"Do our parents know?"

Sirius paused before answering. "Yes," he admitted.

Regulus dejectedly threw the letter onto Sirius's desk. "I'm going to bed," he announced.

Sirius caught him by the arm. "Get back here," he commanded. "Regulus, don't act like a brat. I'll be coming back the week before school starts. We'll still get to go shopping together; I'll help you pick out all your school supplies and everything. You are excited to get your first wand, no?"

Briefly, Regulus's eyes lit up at the prospect of Sirius taking him to Ollivander's. God knew his parents wouldn't be there…

But then an unusual darkness clouded over Regulus's pupils. It so startled Sirius that he let go of his brother.

"I am excited," Regulus admitted. "But it's not like you're actually going to be there. You're probably lying about that, too. Were you planning on telling me ahead of time or just never showing up and leaving me waiting for eternity outside the wand shop while you fuck off with your friends?"

Sirius's mouth was open and gaping. Regulus had never spoken to him like that before. Sirius was too shocked to be authoritative. "Reggie…"

"Good night," Regulus muttered. The anger vanished from his eyes as quickly as it had come and only a resigned sadness remained. "Say hello to James for me…"

Regulus walked from Sirius's room, closer to tears than he had been in a very long time. He didn't even notice Kreacher carrying two mugs and standing outside Sirius's bedroom door.

"Regulus!" Sirius called one last time, stepping out into the hallway, but Regulus didn't respond. He picked up Dante, who had been frantically following him down the corridor, and marched inside his bedroom. He slammed the door behind him.

"Shit…" Sirius sighed.

"Master Sirius," Kreacher said suddenly. Sirius looked down at the elf.

"What?" he demanded.

Kreacher jerked one of his mugs of hot cocoa, and sent all of its contents straight into Sirius's face.

* * *

><p>"How are you, Regulus?" Kreacher asked tentatively.<p>

"Fine," Regulus muttered.

"Your brother is leaving now. He's downstairs saying goodbye to your parents, don't you want to see him off?"

"No," Regulus said shortly. He was spread out on his stomach on his bed and busily scratching away at some parchment in front of him.

Kreacher sighed. His anger with Sirius was overshadowed by his love of Regulus. "You should go and talk to him. I know he came up here earlier wanting to speak with you."

Regulus shrugged. "I don't want to talk to him."

Kreacher rolled his eyes. That was a first. "Regulus, I know you, and I _know_ that in a few days when you've calmed down you're going to seriously regret letting your brother leave without saying goodbye."

"I don't care."

Kreacher sighed. "Well, normally I'd warn you that you won't be seeing him for a many months, but look at what a lie that was _last_ time I thought it was the case. Fine, Regulus, do what you like, but I don't want you sobbing on my shoulder in a week's time because you've suddenly realized how much you miss your big brother and you're _so_ convinced that he hates you. And I am _not_ making you a portkey to James Potter's house."

Regulus flipped him off.

"What are you doing, anyway?" Kreacher asked. Regulus appeared to be sketching a large tree with a smattering of blood-red leaves.

"It's for Lily," he explained, pointing to the text underneath, which appeared to be a letter. "She drew a dragon on her last letter to me. Perhaps I should draw Sirius hanging from it," he added, returning his gaze to his tree sketch.

They both whipped their heads around as they heard the front door slam loudly.

"And it seems that dear _aniki_ has left in his usual manner, leaving our parents in a foul mood and me to deal with them."

"Indeed," Kreacher noted. He glanced again at Regulus's letter/drawing. "You know," he commented. "Since Sirius is running off to gallivant with his senseless Gryffindor friends, there's really no reason you couldn't do much of the same…"


	12. 1 A Letter at Lily's

"Lily," Mr. Evans said for the third time that evening. "Calm down before you break something."

Lily skidded to a halt in front of the t.v.

"Now you're blocking my view," her father said gruffly.

"Oh, leave her be," said Ms. Evans as she emerged from the hallway, clasping on her earrings. "She's excited about having her little friend over. I'm so glad you've made friends up at that school, Lily, I was worried…"

"I still don't think we should leave them alone," Mr. Evans argued. "Wizards…We're going to come back and find the house demolished, I just know it."

Ms. Evans acted as though she could not hear her husband. Instead she raked her eyes up and down his bath robe. "Please go get dressed, hon, I'm not going out with you like that."

"We don't have to leave for half an hour," he argued. Lily had long since resumed her mad dash around the living room, and her father eyed her warily as she whizzed past.

"Yes, but Lily's friend will be here any minute and I thought you wanted to use that time to interrogate him before we leave tonight."

Mr. Evans coughed violently. "_Him?"_ he demanded. "I thought it was going to be a girl friend! Lily, you can't have a boy over while we're not home!"

"Mom said I could," Lily chirped.

Her father sputtered.

"They're eleven, not sixteen," Ms. Evans said simply. "There's nothing to worry about."

"We don't know what kind of ideas these people instill in their children," Mr. Evans insisted. "For all we know, the little magic brat could come waltzing in here with—"

"Lily, clear the table off for us, okay," interrupted Ms. Evans. "And pick up all your Japanese books off the floor. Come on now, let's get you dressed," she added to Lily's father before seizing him by the forearms and pulling him back towards their bedroom.

"Aye aye, Mom," Lily barked, throwing up a salute. She stacked her books neatly on the kitchen counter and cleaned up the whole dining room. She was just settling back down in front of the t.v. when the doorbell rang.

Her mother came scuttling down the hall, her father in tow. The two of them were fully dressed in matching dinner suits. Lily's mother threw open the front door.

"Hello!" she said brightly. "Please come in!"

Lily stood up and peered cautiously into the entryway. Regulus's letter said his father might be escorting him. Lily remembered all too well Regulus's fainting spell at the school, and how he had let slip that his father sometimes hit him. She was insanely curious as to what kind of man he would be.

Her answer was rather surprising. The man who stepped slowly into her home was very handsome. From t.v. and books Lily had gotten the impression that bad people were ugly and unkempt, but here was this man, tall with silky black hair and slate-grey eyes. He looked a lot like Lily's sometimes-friend Sirius Black, but this didn't surprise her. A pureblooded girl in her dorm had informed her on her first night at Hogwarts to expect a lot of wizards to look alike. They were all a little inbred, like Scottish fold cats or racehorses. Perhaps Sirius and Regulus were even distantly related.

Regulus was there as well. His father had a tight grip on his shoulders. Lily saw an expensive looking ring glinting off the man's left hand.

"You must be Reg," Lily mother said conversationally as she led the two inside and motioned for them to seat themselves at the breakfast nook in the kitchen. "Lily's told us a lot about you, you're a little adventurer, aren't you!"

Regulus paused nervously outside the booth, looking like he did not want to sit down next to his father, but the man seemed to be able to control his son with his eyes, and soon Regulus was seated obediently next to him.

"Yes, this is my youngest son, Regulus," Regulus's father said, with a cold emphasis on Regulus's full name, as if he were expressing disapproval at Ms. Evans' familiarity.

"Hello, Ms. Evans, Mr. Evans," Regulus said. He held out his hand, and after a brief moment of shock, Lily's parents took it in turns to shake hands with him.

"W—would you like something to drink?" asked Mr. Evans. Lily could tell her father was nervous about having a grown wizard in his home. She hadn't realized it before, but Regulus's family probably had a lot of money. She could see it in Regulus's pristine hair and robes, and in his father's gold cufflinks.

"No thank you."

Ms. Evans brought them all ice water anyway. She eyed the dress robes Regulus's father wore appreciatively. "You look awfully dressed up, are you going out somewhere tonight, Mr…?"

"Black."

Mr. Black examined the glass he'd been given for a long time before deigning to drink from it. "Yes," he responded finally. "My wife and I are attending a dinner with Ministry officials. Are you two doing much of the same?" he asked, noting their dinner suits.

"Us? Oh no," Ms. Evan's laughed. "No ministry wants anything to do with us, magical or not! No, we're just going out for Italian and them some karaoke."

"It's pronounced _ka-ra-o-ke_," Lily huffed, joining them all in the kitchen.

Mr. Evans rolled his eyes. "Mr. Black," he said. "This is our daughter, Lily. Lily, be polite."

"Hi," said Lily shortly. "Regulus, do you want to come and see my room?"

But Regulus seemed unwilling to get up without permission and only sat silently with his hands in his lap.

"Hey, Reg, come on let's go!"

"Lily," Mr. Evans rolled his eyes.

"I hope it's all right with you that we'll be out of the house for a few hours while Regulus is over," said Ms. Evans, silencing her daughter with a look. "But we'll be back by ten-thirty or eleven and our older daughter will be here while we're gone, she's fifteen."

"And your other daughter is a muggle, is she not?"

"A…a what?"

"It means someone who's not a wizard, Dad," Lily explained in an embarrassed tone.

"Oh, right. Well yes, I suppose she is…that. Well, yeah, she's normal—no, not to say your lot _aren't_ normal, I just…"

"Hm," Mr. Black grunted. "Regulus," he said sharply.

"Yes, Father?"

"You remember what we discussed on the way here?"

Regulus got very pale and his voice became very soft.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. This is less than ideal, but it will have to do for now. I will expect you ready to leave by eight o'clock Monday morning when I come to collect you."

"Yes, sir."

Regulus's father got up from the breakfast nook, taking Regulus with him. Everyone was standing awkwardly around in the kitchen again.

Mr. Black shook hands with each of Lily's parents and then even with her. Lily felt her whole arm flailing about in the man's strong grip. She was grateful people used their right hands for this, because his wedding ring looked very sharp now that she was close enough to see it properly.

"I apologize for my brevity but we both have places to be. If my son causes you any discomfort do let me know and I will compensate you…and then deal with him. You are doing me a very large favor taking him off my hands for the weekend. My wife and I have…guests coming over tomorrow and it is always so much easier without any young ears…roaming about, isn't it? Especially young ears belonging to young boys who do not stay put safe in their rooms when they are asked to," Mr. Black added with a sharp glance down at Regulus, who immediately dropped his own eyes to the floor.

Something in the man's voice made Lily very uncomfortable and by the looks of it, her father shared her sentiments. Ms. Evans, on the other hand, was hopelessly taken in by Mr. Black's good looks.

"I'm sure he'll be no trouble at all!" she insisted, shaking Mr. Black's hand again and leading him to the door. "If he takes after you at all, I bet he's a regular little gentleman."

Lily mimed sticking her finger down her throat behind her mother's back. Regulus couldn't help but snigger.

Mr. Black immediately plunked his hand down on Regulus's head, gripping his hair in an almost predatory manner. Regulus quieted and stilled instantly. "Do any of my instructions need repeating, Regulus?" he asked. His voice was suddenly very silky.

"No."

Mr. Black raised an eyebrow.

"No, sir," Regulus whispered.

"Very well then. I should be off. We all have places to be."

"Right!" Mr. Evans said in a voice that was a little too loud to not be nervous. "Hugs all around, come here, Lily." He pulled his daughter into a hug and kissed her forehead. "Now behave for your sister okay? She's in charge while we're out. We'll be home in a few hours."

"Yeah, yeah," Lily pulled away from her dad and briefly hugged her mom.

Mr. Evans was staring at Regulus's father expectantly. Regulus shifted on the spot.

Lily wanted to scream. The cluelessness of her parents was almost embarrassing. Did they honestly believe this menacing wizard was likely to pull his son in for a goodbye hug? Mr. Black didn't seem the kind of person to touch other people unless it was to display dominance to some degree.

But Lily's parents were prone to see the best in people. She was sure they would write off Mr. Black's odd behavior as being some aspect of wizard culture that they didn't quite understand.

"Okay," said Lily loudly, trying to break up the tense scene in front of her. "Have a nice night, everyone. Regulus, come into the living room, I'll show you how the television works."

She started to pull Regulus away but Mr. Black's cold voice stopped her dead.

"Come here, Regulus," he said, and Lily reluctantly let go of her friend. Regulus marched up to his father obediently.

Lily prepared herself to leap at the man, propriety be damned, but didn't need to because all Mr. Black did was pull Regulus up into his arms. He actually lifted him off the ground and kissed his cheek. "Be good," he whispered so quietly Lily could barely hear him. "I love you. I'll see you in a few days…have fun with your friend."

He set Regulus down. An instant later he was gone. There was a slight crack as he apparated away on the Evans' front porch. Lily dashed to the door but was too late to see anything.

With Mr. Black gone, Lily's parents took a few minutes to talk to Regulus alone. He was much more vocal without his dad breathing down his neck, Lily realized, and he was able to smooth-talk all the worry from Lily's father. When her parents left shortly later, they did so with smiles on their faces and all the worry Mr. Black had given them long gone.

Lily waved until her mother's car was out of sight and then returned inside. She really did want to show Regulus her t.v. He said he'd never seen one before.

While Regulus fiddled with the buttons, Lily said simply, "You're dad is fucking scary."

Regulus swiveled around to face her. "I wish he'd let me come alone, but I think he wanted to scope you all out."

"Me too," Lily said. "I thought you told me your father doesn't like muggles. How'd you even get him to let you come over here?"

Regulus shrugged and picked up the remote. He tore off the battery casing and let the double A's fall to the carpet with a small thud. "I lied."

Lily snorted. "Well obviously. But I'm curious, what'd you tell him?"

"That you were a pureblood wizard."

Lily tilted her head. "What?"

"Evans is a really common name," he told her. "There are several pureblood wizards with that name. I just told him your real parents were dead and that you'd been sent to live with muggles."

"I can't believe that worked."

"Neither can I," Regulus admitted. A strange look came over his face. "But there's been a lot going on in my family lately, so I suppose he's not at the top of his game right now, is he? He's just really excited to have me out of the house this weekend so his…friends can come over."

Regulus was very relieved that Lily had not mentioned anything about his last name matching Sirius's, and at the same time a little sad. He couldn't bring himself to betray his brother and tell her the truth, but if she figured it out on her own…

He was also more than grateful that she had apparently not recognized his father, as she had seen him several weeks prior at the school when he and Regulus's mother had come to get Sirius. He presumed it had been dark and hectic enough for her not to get too good a look.

But still if she came to recognize him it's not as though Regulus could outright deny it…

"Regulus?" Lily asked. Regulus started.

"What?" he said dumbly.

"I asked you a question, space cadet."

"Sorry," Regulus muttered. Idly, he plugged the batteries back into the remote. "What did you ask?"

"That last bit with your dad, where he hugged you and stuff? Was that real? Or was he just putting on an act for my parents?"

Regulus looked at her for a long time before answering. It didn't occur to him to be outraged at Lily's nerve. "No," he said finally. "That was real."

"Oh," Lily said pensively.

Regulus was struggling to get the battery casing back on the remote.

"Let me help you with that," Lily offered. She grabbed for the clicker and managed to snap the casing back on, but knocked Regulus's fingers against the volume button by accident, sending the sound on the t.v. up to a screech.

"Turn that down!" screamed a voice from down the hall. Regulus started.

"Sorry, Petunia!" Lily screamed back. Very leisurely, she set about lowering the volume. Regulus watched in fascination as the moving people on the square screen were partially obscured by a green volume meter.

"Just keep it down," Lily's sister yelled again. "I have to study. _Some_ of us weren't let out of school three frigging months early."

Lily leaned close up to Regulus and whispered. "More like four." Both of them keeled over in silent laughter.

* * *

><p>Lily was very sorry to hear that Regulus was now wandless.<p>

"I suppose we'll just have to share mine," she insisted.

Regulus tilted his head. "How are you to do magic?" he asked. "You've the trace on you, no?"

Lily smiled wickedly. "Well actually, I don't," she said, slowly drawing her wand out from her back pocket.

"And how did you manage that?" Regulus asked curiously. The two of them were sitting on Lily's bed and she began to levitate her camera slowly over to them.

"Simple blunder," she explained. "When I got my Hogwarts letter, Professor McGonagall stopped by for a few minutes to explain, you know, _magic_ and everything to me. She told me that I didn't have the trace on me yet, but that it would be taken care of before my first time returning home from school. That's standard protocol, I guess, but _get this:_ I didn't go home for Christmas, and then everything was so screwed up with school ending months early that I guess everyone forgot to put the trace on me."

"Woah," said Regulus, wide-eyed. "So you mean all the students who didn't go home for Christmas this year managed to sneak off without having the trace put on them?"

"Pretty much," Lily said, smirking. She caught her camera as it approached them in the air. "Want to take some pictures?" she asked.

Regulus nodded. They had fun for a while, dressing up in different outfits of Lily's and snapping pictures of themselves and objects in the house. Regulus felt a little more relaxed about having his photograph taken this time around. When they bored of taking photos, they set the film up to develop in the darkest room in Lily's basement. Then they set about practicing magic. Lily didn't have much to show Regulus that he didn't already know (either from Sirius or his parents) but Regulus was able to show Lily some of the spells he'd been forced to 'invent' while using his father's broken wand. He was genuinely surprised to see that they worked with a functional wand.

"You know," said Lily idly when the two of them finally crashed down to start snacking on the tray of crackers and cheeses that Lily's sister had brought for them. "I've been thinking about all that shit that went down at the school. Remember how those creeps were all intent on kidnapping me because they thought I had that tiara we were messing around with in the Room of Hidden Things?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, I was just thinking that that thing's probably still sitting in there. It must be something dangerous or special if those two men were willing to kill for it."

Regulus nodded. His curiosity was starting to burgeon inside his chest again. All the recent political chaos in his family and being around Sirius had squashed his enthusiasm for adventure, but it was starting to come back with a vengeance. And he was so mad at Sirius right now that burying himself neck-deep in the very mystery his brother had ordered him to steer clear of was a tantalizing idea.

Lily stacked three slices of feta between two crackers to make a mini-sandwich.

"I'll bet James'll be into investigating further, too," she said. "He's got Sirius at his house right now, though, so he's probably distracted with that. Sirius Black, can you believe it? I would never have believed he'd ever consent to staying at James Potter's house for the whole summer break. Ridiculous, isn't it?"

Regulus nodded, his throat tightening angrily at the mention of his brother. To calm himself down, he started planning exactly how he was going to infiltrate The Room and sneak the diadem home with him for further analysis. He had his portkey, of course, so getting to and from the school wasn't a huge problem, but finding his way back to that room might be tricky. Perhaps if he could get ahold of that map that Sirius's friends had been making...

Regulus was debating whether he should include Lily in all this or make up an excuse to exclude her when a tapping at her windowpane startled him so badly he dropped the cracker he was holding.

"Is that an owl?" Lily asked, unfurling her legs and standing up. She let the bird in and it soared to Regulus, dropping an envelope in his lap before taking off out the window and disappearing in the darkness.

"Who knows you're here?" Lily asked curiously.

Regulus recognized the handwriting on the letter and groaned. "No one," he explained. "León's bird is just really smart."

"Who?" Lily asked.

"Oh, my cousin," Regulus explained. "He's probably upset because I never answered his last letter. I'm probably lucky this isn't a howler."

"Well, what does it say?" Lily demanded. Regulus read the letter out loud.

"_Querido Regulus—_He's Spanish, okay? My family, er…gets around a lot—_word of your, shall we say adventures, has reached me. I spoke with your father a few days ago and he had graciously agreed to let me steal you for some weeks this summer. I promise to have you back in time to go school shopping with your dearest hermano mayor. You will enjoy __Lérida, I believe; you have not been here since you were very small._

"_You and I have much to discuss._

"_Un fuerte abrazo,_

"_León."_

"You're going to Lleida?" Lily gasped. "Hide me in your suitcase, Regulus, _please!_"

Regulus blinked furiously before frowning.

"I absolutely hate it when people take it upon themselves to make plans for me like this," he growled.


End file.
